Grayscale withdraws ETF applications for Cardano, Hedera, and Polkadot

Grayscale is withdrawing three exchange-traded fund applications at once. They concern the registrations for a Cardano, Hedera and Polkadot ETF, according to documents the company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 7 August 2026.

In brief:

• Grayscale files three so-called Form RW requests with the SEC to have earlier S-1 registrations withdrawn.
• They concern the Grayscale Cardano Trust ETF, the Grayscale Hedera Trust ETF and the Grayscale Polkadot Trust ETF.
• As the reason, Grayscale states that it does not wish to proceed with the planned distribution of shares.

Cardano is available on OKX and Bybit.

Three withdrawals submitted at the same time

Through so-called Form RW requests, Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC asks the SEC to have the previously filed S-1 registrations withdrawn. The registrations for the three funds were originally submitted to the regulator on 29 August 2025. Now the company is withdrawing all three applications on the same day.

In the SEC documents, the stated reason is that Grayscale does not intend to proceed with the issuance of shares as described in the registrations. The company provides no further explanation.

What does this mean for Cardano, Hedera and Polkadot

The withdrawals mean that, for the time being, there will be no Grayscale-managed ETFs based on these three coins. Whether the company will revive the plans at a later time is unknown. Earlier, Blockchainstories already reported that the Clarity Act is unlikely to cross the finish line this year, which makes the broader regulatory environment for this type of product uncertain.

Cardano is trading at $0.20 at the time of writing, a decline of 0.3% over the past 24 hours. Whether the news about the withdrawn application will affect the price remains to be seen. For investors who had been hoping for more accessible products around these altcoins, the withdrawal of the applications is in any case a setback.