[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] Asset manager 21Shares has taken another step in the process of launching a Hyperliquid spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The Block Crypto, a blockchain outlet, reported on Tuesday that 21Shares filed a second amended S-1 registration statement for the Hyperliquid spot ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 14.

The amendment says the ETF is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol THYP. The industry sees the filing as a sign that talks between 21Shares and the SEC are continuing. The possibility has also resurfaced that it could become the first spot ETF based on Hyperliquid's HYPE token.

The filing also includes an initial seeding plan ahead of listing. 21Shares US, as the fund sponsor, bought 2 seed shares at $50 per share on March 18 and redeemed them the following week. The issuer then plans to create an initial seed creation basket to secure HYPE by buying 20,000 shares from the trust at $25 per share before listing.

The fee structure was again left blank. The amended S-1 did not disclose the sponsor fee. Compared with rival products also seeking to launch a Hyperliquid spot ETF, that item remains undecided.

Another feature of the product is that it will stake part of its HYPE holdings. According to the filing, the trust generally plans to stake 30 to 70 percent of the HYPE it holds, based on a utilization analysis applying historical data. 21Shares said in the filing, "The amount of HYPE staked may be less or more than this depending on timing."

Competition for a Hyperliquid spot ETF is also heating up. 21Shares first applied for a HYPE spot ETF in October last year, one of several applications to launch products tracking an onchain perpetual futures decentralised exchange (DEX).

Rival Bitwise proposed the Bitwise Hyperliquid Spot ETF in September last year and filed a second amended S-1 on April 11. The fund is set to trade as BHYP and its annual management fee was presented as 0.67 percent. Grayscale also filed its own application to list a HYPE spot ETF last month.

Against that backdrop, there are 2 points to watch. One is when 21Shares will finalise and disclose its fee item, and the other is how the SEC review process will treat the staking structure. With the Nasdaq listing ticker and the initial seeding plan now specified, competition in Hyperliquid spot ETFs has entered a phase of head-to-head comparisons in product structure and speed to market.