Boomer brand changes NYSE ticker from ‘ETH,’ acknowledging crypto’s ascendancy

Published at: Aug. 6, 2021

Ethereum has achieved another milestone this week apart from the London hard fork, with a 90-year-old New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed company changing its ticker to avoid confusion with Ether (ETH).

Home decor and furniture chain Ethan Allen, which has more than 300 stores across the United States, announced on Wednesday that it had changed its NYSE ticker from “ETH” to “ETD.” The firm said that it has incorporated “D” to reflect “design” and changed its ticker to avoid investor confusion and solidify its online keyword searches:

“We also believe this change will better differentiate Ethan Allen news from Ethereum news in search results, as Ethereum is often abbreviated as ETH.”

The home furnishing manufacturer and retail chain was founded in 1932. Investors who want to hodl both versions of ETH will have until Aug.16 to do so before Ethan Allen’s symbol is changed for good.

According to The Wall Street Journal in May, the interior design firm’s stock saw a surge in interest from mistaken retail investors who thought they were buying Ether.

“We’ve definitely seen a massive increase on a percentage basis in mistaken activity on the Ethan Allen stream,” Rishi Khanna, CEO of social investing site Stocktwits told the Wall Street Journal.

According to data from Yahoo Finance, the NYSE version of ETH was priced at $20 at the beginning of this year and had surged by more than 50% to the $32 mark by May 7. Since then, the price has crashed down to around $23 at the time of writing.

In the comments section of the stock overview on Yahoo, there are many users who are either confused, annoyed or have found the funny side of the name confusion between the two.

One user named “Terry” wrote under the stock on Sunday that “$ETH has risen $800+ since 20th July” and that in “under 12 weeks this bill run is taking off. Looking very bullish and we’re just getting started. Long way off ATH’s.”

While “Chris L” wrote on Wednesday that “Ethan Allen should really change their stock symbol. It would be nice to discuss an actual great business.”

The price of Ether has seen a resurgence over the past three weeks as anticipation grew leading up to the London hard fork or the Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559 that went live on Thursday.