In a post on X, Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Asset Research at investment management firm VanEck, suggested that Microsoft may be open to investing in an Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) if it meets the company’s yield requirements. Sigel noted that “it sounds [him] like MSFT is open to ETH ETF as long as it can collect income.
Microsoft Open To Spot Ethereum ETFs?
This interpretation came after Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft, reiterated the company’s long-term engagement with digital assets. While not specifically referring to ETH, Hood noted that Microsoft began accepting the cryptocurrency as payment from customers in 2014 and has continued to do so ever since.
“I think it’s important to step back and realize that about ten years ago, actually maybe a little later, we started accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment from our customers, and that was in 2014. And we continue to do that today. We were among the first companies to recognize and embrace this after listening to customers,” said Hood.
According to him, the treasury team always reviews all available asset classes with an eye on three important factors that influence future decisions. “Our treasury team, along with reviews with the Board of Directors, looks at all the asset classes we have. It is important to remember the way we decide and our goals for the balance sheet and the cash balance, which is important, to save money, to allow more money to be able to fund our activities and to cooperate with investments.”
Hood indicated that digital assets are “something we consistently cover with our Board” as Microsoft measures whether any given category meets its strategic goals. “So with those three goals, we’re looking at all asset classes, including cryptocurrency as an investment. It’s something we discuss with our Board regularly and we continue to evaluate different categories every year if our goals change,” he added.
Sigel’s reasoning that Microsoft can rely on ETH-based products depends on three points: the company’s early adoption of crypto as a form of payment, the continuous evaluation of digital assets at the board level, and the role of yield generation that can play in any investment choice. Sigel says:
1) They accept crypto and believe in its use.
2) The board already exists and will continue to evaluate the digital assets of the archive.
3) If the asset is in yield = MSFT’s higher chance to buy it.
However, not everyone found this conclusion closed. One member of the Ethereum community questioned whether Sigel was reading Hood’s words, calling it a “leap” to think that Microsoft might buy ETH ETH, though he admitted it was “possible.”
When asked if Microsoft might also be considering Solana (SOL), Sigel replied with a terse, “Yes.” VanEck himself has experience in the altcoin ETF space, offering an Ethereum ETF and filing in June with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the Solana ETF. With the incoming Trump administration, experts believe that altcoin ETFs like Solana will likely be allowed under new SEC Chairman Paul Atkins.
Meanwhile, Microsoft recently rejected a different crypto-related proposal. According to an earlier report from Bitcoinist, a group of shareholders has urged the tech giant to list Bitcoin as a reserve asset. That proposal, voted on on December 10, failed—only 0.55% of shareholders supported it, and the majority effectively rejected the idea of ​​adding BTC to Microsoft’s balance sheet.
Notably, the US SEC approved the first Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on June 23 this year. One key feature of the approval was the removal of key features in response to agency concerns about the potential classification of the stake as an unregistered security.
At press time, ETH traded at $3,931.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
Source link