Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2024

The financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). The Trust is an investment company and follows the specialized accounting and reporting guidance in the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC” or “Codification”) Topic 946, Financial Services—Investment Companies.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of the financial statements in accordance with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of these financial statements. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Cash

Generally, the Trust does not intend to hold any cash. Cash includes non-interest bearing non-restricted cash with one institution. Cash in a bank deposit account, at times, may exceed U.S. federally insured limits. The Trust has not experienced any losses in such accounts and does not believe it is exposed to any significant credit risk on such bank deposits.

Investment Transactions and Revenue Recognition

The Trust records its investment transactions on a trade date basis and changes in fair value are reflected as net change in unrealized appreciation or depreciation on investment in ether. Realized gains and losses are calculated using the specific identification method. Realized gains and losses are recognized in connection with transactions including settling obligations for the Sponsor Fee in ether.

Investment Valuation - Principal Market NAV

U.S. GAAP defines fair value as the price the Trust would receive to sell an asset or pay to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. The Trust’s policy is to value investments held at fair value.

For financial statement reporting, the Trust identifies and determines the ether principal market (or in the absence of a principal market, the most advantageous market) for U.S. GAAP purposes consistent with the application of the fair value measurement framework in FASB ASC Topic 820. A principal market is the market with the greatest volume and activity level for the asset or liability. The Principal Market NAV and the Principal Market NAV per-share are calculated using the fair value of ether based on the price provided by this exchange market, as of 4:00 p.m. ET on the measurement date for U.S. GAAP purposes. The Trust determines its principal market (or in the absence of a principal market the most advantageous market) on a quarterly basis to determine which market is its principal market for the purpose of calculating fair value for the creation of quarterly and annual financial statements.

Specifically, the Trust utilizes a third-party valuation vendor, Lukka, Inc., to identify publicly available, well established and reputable crypto asset exchanges selected by Lukka, Inc. in their sole discretion, including Binance, Bitfinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bullish, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gate.io, Gemini, HitBTC, Huobi, itBit, Kraken, KuCoin, LMAX, MEXC Global, OKX and Poloniex, and then calculating, on each valuation period, the highest volume exchange during the 60 minutes prior to 4:00 p.m. ET for ether. The Sponsor then identifies that market as the principal market for ether during that period, and uses the price for ether from that venue at 4:00 ET as the principal market price. In evaluating the markets that could be considered principal markets, the Trust considered whether the specific markets were accessible to the Trust, either directly or through an intermediary, at the end of each period.

The Principal Market and the Principal Market Price for ether, which comprised the majority of the Trust’s assets for the period from July 22, 2024 to September 30, 2024, was Crypto.com with a price of $2,594.54 as of September 30, 2024.

Various inputs are used in determining the fair value of assets and liabilities. Inputs may be based on independent market data (“observable inputs”) or they may be internally developed (“unobservable inputs”). These inputs are categorized into a disclosure hierarchy consisting of three broad levels for financial reporting purposes. The level of a value determined for an asset or liability within the fair value hierarchy is based on the lowest level of any input that is significant to the fair value measurement in its entirety. The three levels of the fair value hierarchy are as follows:

Level 1: Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities;

Level 2: Inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability either directly or indirectly, including quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not considered to be active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability, and inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data by correlation or other means; and

Level 3: Unobservable inputs, including the Trust's assumptions used in determining the fair value of investments, where there is little or no market activity for the asset or liability at the measurement date.

The cost basis of the investment in ether recorded by the Trust for financial reporting purposes is the fair value of ether at the time of transfer. The cost basis recorded by the Trust may differ from proceeds collected by the Authorized Participant from the sale of the corresponding Shares to investors.

Given that ether is actively traded and valuation adjustments are not applied, they are categorized in Level 1 of the fair value hierarchy. The following summarizes the Trust’s assets accounted for at fair value at September 30, 2024* (amounts in thousands):


	Level 1		Level 2		Level 3		Total
Assets
Investment in ether, at fair value	$	259,851	$	—	$	—	$	259,851

* No comparative period presented as the Trust commenced operations on July 22, 2024.

Calculation of Net Asset Value (NAV) and NAV per-share

On each business day, as soon as practicable after 4:00 p.m. ET, the NAV of the Trust is obtained by subtracting all accrued fees and other liabilities of the Trust from the fair value of the ether and other assets held by the Trust. The Bank of New York Mellon (the “Administrator”) computes the NAV per-share by dividing the net asset value of the Trust by the number of Shares outstanding on the date the computation is made.

Income Taxes

The Trust is classified as a “grantor trust” for U.S. federal income tax purposes. As a result, the Trust itself is not subject to U.S. federal income tax. Instead, the Trust’s income and expenses “flow through” to the shareholders, and the Administrator reports the Trust’s income, gains, losses, and deductions to the Internal Revenue Service on that basis. The Sponsor has analyzed applicable tax laws and regulations and their application to the Trust, and does not believe that there are any uncertain tax positions that require recognition of a tax liability as of September 30, 2024. The Trust is required to determine whether its tax positions are more likely than not to be sustained on examination by the applicable taxing authority, based on the technical merits of the position. Tax positions not deemed to meet a more likely than not threshold would be recorded as a tax expense in the current year. As of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, the Trust has determined that no provision for income taxes is required and no liability for unrecognized tax benefits has been recorded. The Trust does not expect that its assessment related to unrecognized tax benefits will materially change over the next 12 months. However, the Trust’s conclusions may be subject to review and adjustment at a later date based on factors including, but not limited to, the nexus of income among various tax jurisdictions; compliance with U.S. federal, U.S. state, and tax laws of jurisdictions in which the Trust operates in; and changes in the administrative practices and precedents of the relevant authorities. The Trust is required to analyze all open tax years. Open tax years are those years that are open for examination by the

relevant income taxing authority. As of September 30, 2024, all tax years since inception remain open for examination. There were no examinations in progress at period end.

Organizational and offering costs

The costs of the Trust’s organization and the initial offering of the Shares are borne directly by the Sponsor. The Trust is not obligated to reimburse the Sponsor.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

In December 2023, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2023-08, Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Crypto Assets (Subtopic 350-60): Accounting for and Disclosure of Crypto Assets (“ASU 2023-08”). ASU 2023-08 is intended to improve the accounting for certain crypto assets by requiring an entity to measure those crypto assets at fair value each reporting period with changes in fair value recognized in net income. The amendments also improve the information provided to investors about an entity’s crypto asset holdings by requiring disclosure about significant holdings, contractual sale restrictions, and changes during the reporting period. ASU 2023-08 is effective for annual and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2024. Early adoption is permitted for both interim and annual financial statements that have not yet been issued. The Trust adopted this new guidance with no material impact on its financial statements and disclosures as the Trust uses fair value as its method of accounting for Ethereum in accordance with its classification as an investment company for accounting purposes.

- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for income taxes, which may include its accounting policies for recognizing and measuring deferred tax assets and liabilities and related valuation allowances, recognizing investment tax credits, operating loss carryforwards, tax credit carryforwards, and other carryforwards, methodologies for determining its effective income tax rate and the characterization of interest and penalties in the financial statements.

+ References + Details

- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for investment in financial asset.

+ References + Details

Bitwise Ethereum ETF 10-Q