Grayscale Withdraws Cardano ETF Registration

Grayscale Investments Sponsors filed a request on August 7 to withdraw the registration statement for the Grayscale Cardano Trust ETF. The move leaves no active Grayscale S-1 process for a Cardano ETF, while the related NYSE Arca listing process had already been withdrawn in 2025.

The withdrawal leaves Cardano without an active U.S. spot ETF candidate just as ADA futures on CME Group reach the six-month threshold included in U.S. generic listing standards for certain commodity-based exchange-traded products.

Grayscale Closes the Existing GADA Process

Grayscale filed Form RW with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to withdraw the registration statement for the Grayscale Cardano Trust ETF, SEC File No. 333-289948.

The original S-1 was filed on August 29, 2025, followed by an amended S-1/A on October 20, 2025.

In the withdrawal request, Grayscale states that it does not intend to proceed with the planned distribution of the Trust’s shares registered under the registration statement.

The registration had not been declared effective, and no securities had been issued or sold under it.

The filing does not represent an SEC rejection of the Cardano ETF. Form RW is an issuer-initiated request to withdraw a registration statement, and Grayscale provided no further public explanation for its decision.

The separate NYSE Arca 19b-4 process for the Grayscale Cardano Trust had already been withdrawn on September 29, 2025. Following the latest Form RW, there is no active S-1 or 19b-4 process for that Grayscale Cardano product.

Cardano was not the only Grayscale product affected. On August 7, the company also filed Form RW requests for its Hedera and Polkadot products. The three withdrawals were submitted within approximately 190 seconds and used substantially similar procedural language.

Cardano Reaches a New ETF Listing Threshold

Grayscale’s withdrawal came immediately before a separate regulatory development for Cardano.

CME Group launched regulated Cardano futures on February 9, 2026. The standard ADA futures contract represents 100,000 ADA, while the Micro ADA futures contract represents 10,000 ADA. Both are cash-settled using the CME CF Cardano-Dollar Reference Rate.

On August 9, those contracts completed six months of trading.

That threshold is relevant under the generic listing standards for Commodity-Based Trust Shares approved by the SEC in September 2025 for U.S. exchanges including NYSE Arca, Nasdaq and Cboe BZX.

One route under those standards applies when the underlying commodity has a futures contract that has been available for trading for at least six months on a designated contract market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, subject to the associated requirements.

CME is a CFTC-regulated designated contract market.

For a future Cardano product, satisfying the applicable generic listing requirements could remove the need for an exchange to pursue a separate individual 19b-4 approval process. An issuer would still need the appropriate securities registration and would have to satisfy the remaining regulatory requirements.

Six months of CME trading therefore does not create or approve a Cardano ETF automatically. There is currently no active U.S. Cardano spot ETF filing using that route.

Cardano Is Left Without an Active U.S. Spot ETF Candidate

The withdrawal changes Cardano’s immediate position in the U.S. institutional market.

Bitcoin and Ethereum already have U.S. spot ETF products, while Cardano currently has no active U.S. spot ETF candidate following the Grayscale withdrawal.

That does not leave ADA without exchange-traded investment products outside the United States. Cardano ETPs are already available in Europe, providing regulated market exposure to ADA. A U.S. spot ETF, however, would represent a separate distribution channel through American brokerage and institutional investment infrastructure.

The regulatory option for a new U.S. Cardano product remains open. Form RW does not prevent Grayscale from filing a new registration in the future, nor does it prevent another issuer from pursuing its own Cardano product.

Cardano’s position has therefore moved in two directions within days. Grayscale’s existing GADA process has ended, leaving ADA without an active U.S. spot ETF candidate. At the same time, six months of CME futures trading have given a future issuer a regulatory pathway that was not available when the original Grayscale process began.

The next concrete development is no longer an SEC decision on GADA. It would be a new Cardano filing, from Grayscale or another issuer, seeking to use the regulatory framework now available.