SEC Filing Document

Company: T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF
Ticker: 
CIK: 2089855
Filing Type: S-1/A
Document Type: S-1/A
Date Filed: 2026-03-16
Accession Number: 0001999371-26-005896
Exchange: 
SIC Code: 6221
SIC Description: Commodity Contracts Brokers & Dealers
URL: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2089855/000199937126005896/active-s1a_031626.htm

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activity. The latest change in ether monetary policy took place during the Merge, in which mining was deprecated and mining subsidies ceased. Unlike bitcoin, ether’s supply is uncapped and can be inflationary when the rate of new ether being created is higher than the rate that ether is being destroyed. In October 2025, ether had a total circulating supply of about 121 million. In February 2025, of about 120 million circulating supply, approximately 72 million ether were pre-mined, 50.4 million ether were issued by miners before the switch to PoS, 2.3 million ether were issued to validators staking ether and 4.4 million ether were burned in base fees. There is no guarantee that the ether issuance policy will remain unchanged over time, and future modifications to monetary policy might create splits in the Ethereum community and lead to two or more conflicting Ethereum networks. Ethereum protocol, clients and network upgrades

PoS, the fork choice rule,
the EVM architecture and the monetary policy of ether comprise the “Ethereum Protocol,” the full set rules that users
of the Ethereum System have to agree on in order to participate in the network. Implementations of the Ethereum Protocol are called
“Ethereum Clients.” These are open-source codes that can be maintained by anyone and used by any individual wishing
to join the Ethereum Network. Every computer running an instance of an Ethereum Client is called a node. The infrastructure of
the Ethereum Network is collectively maintained by various participants, which includes validators, developers, and users. Validators
register transactions inside blocks and provide security to the Ethereum Network. Developers maintain and contribute updates to
Ethereum Clients. Users access the Ethereum Network either running their own node or communicating with nodes run by a third party
server. Anyone can be a user, developer, or validator, but not all network participants need to run a node.

Similar to BIPs, Ethereum upgrade
proposals are known as Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). However, all Ethereum upgrades are made through hard forks, which
are not backward-compatible and thus demand Ethereum users to update their clients to continue having access to the Ethereum Network.
The Merge introduced the Beacon Chain as the new consensus layer of Ethereum, responsible for block production and finalization,
whereas the original Ethereum chain remained as the network’s execution layer, in which code execution takes place. This
transition was expected since the network’s launch in mid-2015, and aimed at reducing Ethereum’s overall energy consumption
while paving the way for higher scalability and increased transaction throughput. Since the Merge, all upgrades on Ethereum consist
of new releases for both consensus and execution software of all clients implementing the Ethereum Protocol.

While the Ethereum Protocol
is an open-source project with no official company or group in control, there is one entity called the Ethereum Foundation which
supports the development, growth, and research on Ethereum. It plays a role in stewarding the Ethereum ecosystem, but it does not
control or manage the network. Instead, the Foundation provides resources, grants, and coordination to help maintain the Ethereum
protocol and its infrastructure.

Unlike Bitcoin, which has Bitcoin
Core as its dominant client, the Ethereum Network is operated by a more diverse list of clients. In October 2025, about 44% of
Ethereum nodes run the geth client, 18% the nethermind client, 18% of the go-ethereum client, and the remaining are split among
other clients. Core developers of Ethereum clients are able to access, and can alter, the client’s source code and, as a
result, they are responsible for official releases of updates and other changes to Ethereum Clients.

Network Upgrades. Since
the Merge, Ethereum experienced the successful activation of two other upgrades: (i) the Shanghai/Capella (Shapella) upgrade, activated
in April 2023, which enabled ether withdrawals for validators participating in the network’s consensus layer and (ii) the
Cancun/Deneb (Dencun) upgrade in March 2024, which activated proto-danksharding (EIP-4844), a new technology that reduces the
costs for second layer solutions known as rollups to post data on Ethereum and thus decreases transaction fees paid by users using
these upper layers to access the Ethereum ecosystem.

Particularly, following the
Dencun upgrade, most second layers that had properly prepared for the activation of EIP-4844 experienced, as expected, reduced
transaction fees when batching transactions to the main Ethereum Network. In turn, the upgrade lowered the transaction costs for
executing transactions on such networks and significantly reduced activity on Ethereum’s base layer. However, some second
layer solutions reportedly experienced outages and other disruptions in the aftermath of the upgrade, which in the case of “Blast,”
one of Ethereum’s rollups, led to a halt in block production for a period of time. Blast normal operation was reportedly
restored afterward. As with any change to open-source software code and client overhaul, planned forks such as the ones activated
since the Merge could introduce bugs, coding defects, unanticipated or undiscovered problems, flaws, security risks, problematic
incentive structures, or otherwise fail to work as intended or achieve the expected benefits that proponents hope for in the short
term or the long term.

Because Ethereum has no central
authority, the release of updates to Ethereum Clients by their developers does not guarantee that the updates will be automatically
adopted by the other network participants. Users and validators must accept any changes made to the source code by downloading
the proposed modification and that modification is effective only with respect to those Ethereum users and validators who choose
to download and run it. As a practical matter, a modification to the source code becomes part of the Ethereum Network only if it
is accepted by individuals that collectively have a majority of the Ethereum Network. If a modification is accepted by only a percentage
of users and validators, a division will occur such that one network will run the pre-modification source code and the other network
will run the modified source code.

As a continuation to the Ethereum
2.0 transition, Ethereum underwent a third upgrade called Pectra, which was activated in May 2025. Pectra activated a number of
EIPs, including:

●	Staker Flexibility: Validators can now accumulate rewards, holding balances from 32 to 2048 ether
and earning compounding rewards. The prior distributing validator model (which sends rewards above 32 ether to a withdrawal address)
remains supported.

●	User Experience Enhancements: Self-custodied wallets can now delegate to smart contracts, enabling
new functionality such as sponsorship.

Ethereum wallets and transactions

Similar to the Bitcoin System,
users of the Ethereum Network must either run an Ethereum Client or use an Ethereum wallet. To initiate an Ethereum transaction,
users generate a pair of private and public keys, the latter being used to receive funds, and the former to authenticate transactions,
send funds and interact with dApps on the platform. The same careful management of private keys must be carried out in the case
of Ethereum, allowing a user to securely custody ether and other crypto assets living on the Ethereum Network. Nonetheless, in
contrast to Bitcoin, where multiple private-public key pairs can be derived from a single seed phrase, Ethereum operates on an
account-based model. This means that instead of tracking multiple individual key pairs, a single account is used to manage the
balance of ether and crypto assets. Each account has an associated public address and private key, and the entire balance is tied
to the account rather than to individual key pairs. To execute any transaction on Ethereum, including sending ether and other crypto
assets, and interacting with dApps, a user must hold enough ether on its balance to pay for the gas costs of the corresponding
code execution.

Ether Markets

The Ethereum market includes
a wide array of participants in the investment, retail, and service sectors. The investment sector, similar to bitcoin, includes
both private and professional investors who trade ether for speculative purposes. The retail sector involves users who buy ether
to transfer it or to pay for transaction fees when transferring other crypto assets and interacting with dApps on the Ethereum
Network. Retail users can also buy ether to pay for goods and services, though its adoption as a payment method is still in its
infancy. The service sector, on the other hand, is expanding rapidly, with companies like Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini providing
essential services such as trading, payment processing, custodial solutions and staking. As Ethereum continues to evolve, the service
sector is expected to grow, offering more sophisticated and varied services to accommodate the network’s increasing user
base and its unique functionalities like smart contracts.