By Asset management firms, including BlackRock and VanEck, made significant updates to their filings for spot bitcoin ETFs, aiming to secure approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These revisions, submitted on Thursday and Friday, signal a potential decision looming on the horizon, according to industry insiders.
By the end of Friday, a cohort of firms, such as BlackRock Asset Management, VanEck, Valkyrie Investments, Bitwise Investment Advisers, Invesco Ltd., Fidelity, WisdomTree Investments, and a joint venture between Ark Investments and 21Shares, furnished new documents to regulators. These filings detailed their arrangements with market makers, essential for ensuring efficient and liquid trading environments.
Insiders familiar with the process revealed that those meeting the end-of-year revision deadlines might potentially launch by January 10, aligning with the SEC’s mandate to approve or reject the Ark/21Shares ETF by that date.
Sources indicated that the SEC might alert issuers as early as Tuesday or Wednesday about clearance for launch the following week. Due to confidentiality, these sources shared insights anonymously.
Amid Bitcoin’s price surge to nearly $42,000, partly fueled by expectations of an imminent SEC approval, regulators may signal their decision on spot bitcoin ETFs as soon as next week.
Valkyrie’s filing disclosed plans for an ETF management fee of 0.80% upon SEC approval in the new year, echoing similar fee structures proposed by Ark/21Shares earlier. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund aims to be the most cost-effective, with fees set at 0.39%.
Invesco proposed a 0.59% fee but committed, via its filing, to waive this charge for six months on the initial $5 billion in attracted assets for the new fund.
Among the 14 asset managers seeking SEC approval, Grayscale Investments and Hashdex also seek to transition existing products into spot bitcoin ETFs. The U.S. securities regulator has historically rejected attempts to launch these products over the past decade, citing concerns about market manipulation and investor protection. Presently, the only approved cryptocurrency ETFs are linked to bitcoin and ethereum futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
