Grayscale has withdrawn its S-1 registration statements for planned spot ETFs tracking Cardano, Hedera and Polkadot, filing three separate Form RW submissions with the SEC on August 7. According to CryptoSlate's report, the withdrawals were coordinated tightly: the Cardano withdrawal landed at 4:33:37 p.m. ET, Hedera followed at 4:34:55 p.m., and Polkadot came just under two minutes later at 4:36:47 p.m. — all three pulled within roughly 190 seconds of each other.
Each filing states plainly that the registrations never became effective and that no securities under them were ever issued or sold. Grayscale's stated reason was simple: the firm no longer intends to proceed with the planned distribution of shares registered under these filings.
Filings That Had Already Been Losing Momentum
The withdrawals cap a slow fade rather than a sudden reversal. The original S-1 registrations for the Cardano and Polkadot ETFs were filed with the SEC on August 29, 2025, with the Hedera filing following on September 9, 2025 — nearly a year of registrations sitting on file. The associated exchange-listing filings for all three products had already been withdrawn several months earlier, meaning Wednesday's Form RW submissions were closing out registrations that had effectively stalled well before the formal withdrawal.
Grayscale Isn't Retreating From Altcoin ETFs Broadly
The withdrawals don't signal a full pullback from altcoin products. Grayscale still has active registrations moving through the SEC for Bittensor, Aave, BNB, NEAR and Zcash, and two of its staking-linked funds have already cleared the bar this year — the Avalanche Staking ETF went effective March 11, and the Hyperliquid Staking ETF followed on June 2. That pattern suggests Grayscale is being selective about which altcoin ETF bets it continues to push, rather than abandoning the category after a broader shift in regulatory posture toward crypto products.
Related: Grayscale's Pandl: Crypto Can Advance Without a CLARITY Act
Cardano, Hedera and Polkadot have each struggled to generate the kind of sustained trading and price momentum that has helped justify ETF products for other large-cap tokens this year, which may have factored into Grayscale's decision to cut the filings loose rather than keep them dormant on file.
Grayscale has not indicated whether it might refile registrations for any of the three tokens in the future, or whether Wednesday's withdrawals represent a permanent decision to step back from ADA, HBAR and DOT exposure through its ETF lineup.
