According to PANews, ARK Invest and 21Shares have recently submitted an application for an Ethereum spot ETF that does not include pledging. It has been reported that previous application documents mentioned pledging, stating that 'the issuer can sometimes pledge a part of the trust assets through one or more trusted pledge providers'. However, this wording has been removed from the documents updated on Friday.

Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst, commented on this move. He suggested that it could be a desperate attempt or a strategy to give the SEC one less reason to reject the application. The decision to exclude pledging from the Ethereum ETF application by ARK Invest and 21Shares is a significant development in the cryptocurrency market. It remains to be seen how this will impact the SEC's decision on the application.