Media: SEC may approve ARK Invest’s first BTC ETF in early January

In total, the regulator is considering more than a dozen applications from various investment companies

21.12.2023 - 14:49

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3 min

What’s new? The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may allow spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the market as early as January 10 next year. This is the deadline for a decision on the application for the launch of such a product from investment partner companies ARK Invest and 21Shares, which was filed back in April. This was reported by FOX journalists, citing sources familiar with the matter. Applications from several other companies, including BlackRock, Fidelity, and Bitwise, were submitted to the regulator in June.

Material by FOX

What else is known? More than a dozen investment companies have applied for permission to launch spot BTC ETFs in the United States this year. Representatives of some of them believe that the SEC may approve several applications at the same time, but officials themselves did not respond to requests for comment.

Spot bitcoin ETFs can give retail investors greater access to the largest cryptocurrency at a lower cost than already approved futures funds. In this, all transactions are conducted through regulated money management companies and the NYSE and Nasdaq stock exchanges, which carries less risk compared to operating on unregulated crypto exchanges.

At the same time, the SEC required companies to sell and redeem fund shares only in cash, which may create difficulties for both issuers and investors. In particular, investors will have to pay a tax when redeeming shares, which is not levied when receiving payments in the so-called in-kind form (in this case, in bitcoins).

Grayscale CEO: launching spot BTC ETFs will give bitcoin access to the $30 trillion market

Michael Sonnenschein also spoke about a meeting with SEC officials regarding the conversion of the GBTC bitcoin trust

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood also previously said that her company had priority over BlackRock due to earlier filing deadlines. At the same time, Grayscale urged officials to simultaneously allow all such products on the market, so as not to give any company a competitive advantage.

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