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VanEck amended its Avalanche ETF filing to include AVAX staking rewards, competitive fees, and Nasdaq listing ambitions.
Author: Tanishq Bodh
December 21, 2025 — Asset management heavyweight VanEck has moved one step closer to bringing Avalanche into traditional portfolios, submitting an amended filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a spot Avalanche (AVAX) ETF.
The revised proposal outlines plans to list the VanEck Avalanche Trust on Nasdaq under the ticker VAVX, giving investors exposure to AVAX without the need to manage wallets, private keys, or onchain infrastructure. Importantly, the amendment introduces staking mechanics, signaling a shift from passive crypto exposure toward yield-bearing digital asset products.
A key update in VanEck’s amended filing is the explicit inclusion of onchain staking rewards. Under the proposal, AVAX held by the trust would be staked directly on the Avalanche network, with rewards potentially distributed to shareholders after fees and operational costs.
To execute this, VanEck has selected Coinbase as the ETF’s staking provider and custodian, underscoring Coinbase’s growing role as institutional infrastructure for regulated crypto products.
If approved, VAVX would join a small but expanding class of ETFs that do more than simply track price, instead offering native blockchain yield within a familiar financial wrapper.
VanEck has set the ETF’s management fee at 0.30%, undercutting several rival Avalanche filings. By comparison, competing proposals from other issuers range from roughly 0.34% to 0.50%, making VanEck’s product one of the most cost-efficient AVAX vehicles currently proposed.
Notably, the fee includes no temporary waivers, suggesting VanEck expects sustained demand rather than short-term inflows driven by promotional pricing.
The amendment arrives amid a broader surge in altcoin ETF filings, following the commercial success of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs earlier in the cycle. With AVAX ETFs now being pursued by multiple issuers, Avalanche is increasingly being viewed as a serious Layer-1 contender in institutional markets.
Avalanche’s appeal lies in its subnet architecture, which allows developers and enterprises to deploy application-specific blockchains for DeFi, gaming, RWAs, and payments, an approach that has helped differentiate it from more monolithic Layer-1 networks.
Following news of the amended filing, AVAX briefly rallied, reflecting renewed optimism around institutional demand and long-term capital inflows.
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Despite the progress, approval is far from guaranteed. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has acknowledged the filing, but continues to scrutinize altcoin ETFs for issues around market manipulation, liquidity, and custody.
VanEck’s amendment also reclassifies the trust as a “smaller reporting company,” a technical adjustment that may streamline disclosures but does not materially reduce regulatory hurdles.
If approved, the VanEck Avalanche ETF would represent a meaningful evolution in crypto ETFs:
Together, these elements could significantly expand AVAX’s investor base, particularly among yield-seeking institutions constrained to traditional financial rails.
As the SEC deliberates heading into 2026, VanEck’s filing reinforces a broader trend: asset managers are no longer just packaging crypto price exposure, they are increasingly integrating native blockchain economics into familiar investment vehicles.
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