3iQ Announces Proactive Measures for Investors with Hard Forking from Ethereum Merge

Global digital assets investment leader works diligently to address potential hard fork for funds with ETH exposure   

TORONTO, Sept. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 3iQ Digital Asset Management (3iQ), a leading global digital asset investment fund manager, today announced it is taking proactive measures for its investors with the possibility of at least one hard fork of the Ethereum protocol which may result in one or more new tokens.

3iQ, led by its industry-leading independent research and digital assets portfolio management, is monitoring these potential developments and remains in close consultation with other market participants and its service partners on all aspects of the Merge including the potential hard forking of Ethereum blockchain. 3iQ offers a number of investment strategies with ETH exposure including the 3iQ CoinShares Ether ETF (TSX: ETHQ) and the Ether Fund (TSX: QETH), which became North America's first spot Ether exchange-traded product (ETP) when it launched in December 2020.

Ethereum's proof-of-work (PoW) Mainnet merge with the Beacon Chain proof-of-stake (PoS) system may potentially lead Ethereum miners to pursue two different pathways. The first would be to find a new PoW blockchain that supports their existing mining hardware. The second pathway would be to reject the upgrade and continue to mine Ethereum under its previous PoW consensus mechanism by creating a new blockchain. If miners were to pursue this second pathway, a chain split is expected to occur that would spawn a variant of the post-Merge Ethereum PoS blockchain. Such new versions of Ethereum would continue operating on a PoW consensus mechanism. Assuming only one hard fork for illustrative purposes, the result would be two separate blockchain networks with two different native tokens: Ethereum (ETH) and an EthereumPoW token.

With the Merge and potential hard fork, 3iQ has no intention to halt trading of QETH and ETHQ and additional products with ETH exposure like the 3iQ Global Cryptoasset Fund. ETHQ will remain open for daily creations and redemptions as normal course of business, just as it has during every trading day since the ETF's inception.

"3iQ will always put our investors and shareholders' best interests first," said Fred Pye, Chairman and CEO of 3iQ. "Our best-in-class team will continue to evaluate all aspects of the Merge and potential hard forking of Ethereum blockchain. We will regularly update investors and continue to examine all possible avenues to maximize unitholder accretion while maintaining our Funds' investment objectives."

3iQ has plans in place to price the value of potential forked assets – if any – in line with fund value principles. And in the event of any hard forking, 3iQ would plan to keep such PoW assets in their funds in the short-term while continuously reevaluating and updating investors as more information becomes available.

For more information around the Merge and potential hard forking of Ethereum blockchain, read 3iQ's research pieces "The Merge," "What the Fork?" and "Show Time." To learn more about 3iQ's digital asset offerings, visit www.3iQ.ca.

Founded in 2012, 3iQ Corp. (3iQ) is Canada's leading digital asset investment fund manager with more than C$700 million in assets under management. 3iQ was the first Canadian investment fund manager to offer a public bitcoin investment fund, The Bitcoin Fund (TSX: QBTC) (TSX: QBTC.U), and a public ether investment fund, The Ether Fund (TSX: QETH.UN)(TSX: QETH.U). More recently, 3iQ launched the 3iQ CoinShares Bitcoin ETF (TSX: BTCQ) (TSX: BTCQ.U) and the 3iQ CoinShares Ether ETF (TSX: ETHQ) (TSX: ETHQ.U). 3iQ offers investors convenient and familiar investment products to gain exposure to digital assets.

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This announcement and the information contained herein is restricted and is not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly in, or into or from the Australia or any other jurisdiction in which the same would be unlawful.

You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell units of the ETF on a stock exchange or other alternative Canadian trading system (an "exchange"). If units of the ETF are purchased or sold on an exchange, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying units of the ETF and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them.

There are ongoing fees and expenses associated with owning units of an investment fund. An investment fund must prepare disclosure documents that contain key information about the fund. You can find more detailed information about the ETF in its public filings available at www.sedar.com. Investment funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

Certain statements contained in this document constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to matters disclosed in this document and anticipated events or results and may include statements regarding the future financial performance of the funds managed by 3iQ. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terms such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue" or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Actual results may vary from such forward-looking information. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

Contacts

3iQ:
Ryan Graham, JConnelly
862-777-4274
[email protected]

SOURCE 3iQ