The famed investor is working with a Swiss crypto pioneer to get the green light from the SEC as the race to introduce the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the US heats up.
The widely acknowledged American star investor Cathie Wood is not one to let things lie. The crypto devotee who founded Ark Investment has updated the registration statement for a planned Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - again.
It is being developed in conjunction with Swiss crypto pioneer 21 shares and the update is the third since Ark made its application with the SEC last April.
Fees Disclosed
If the SEC approves the ETF, it will be traded on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (on the BZX Exchange) using the ticker symbol ARKB. The updates relate to SEC doubts about the necessary transparency of market prices and investor protections.
As part of the revised submission, Ark indicated that it would pay a unitary sponsor fee of 0.80 percent of the trust's bitcoin holdings. It will be paid by the trust to the sponsor as compensation for services performed under its agreement. According to market observers, this is the first time that a potential ETF Bitcoin issuer is disclosing those kinds of fees.
Competing with Wall Street
In September 2023, the SEC decided to delay any decisions related to Ark's registration statement related to the Bitcoin ETF. The next scheduled date is on January 10, 2024. Influential Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that although it is surprising, the revised registration statement is possibly a good sign that negotiations with US regulatory authorities may be trending in the right direction.
Blackrock, the world's largest asset manager, as well as some of the largest investment banks internationally, are all looking at launching similar offerings. However, the SEC has not approved any of them until now.
Despite that, the ETF plans have fired up the rally in the crypto market this year. The news that Blackrock intends to launch an Ethereum ETF recently has lent the market added momentum in recent days.
