US SEC deems spot Bitcoin ETFs filings as inadequate: Report

There may be a longer wait for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States, as the Securities and Exchange Commission labeled investment managers’ recent applications inadequate.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the securities regulator told the Nasdaq and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) that their filings are not “sufficiently clear and comprehensive.” These exchanges represent asset managers in the filing of the financial product.

In the eyes of the SEC, the exchanges should have named the spot Bitcoin exchange with which they would have a “surveillance-sharing agreement” or provided sufficient information about the details of those surveillance arrangements. However, asset managers can resubmit the filings after clarifying the information.

A flurry of applications has been filed over the past few weeks since BlackRock joined the list of companies seeking to debut the first spot Bitcoin ETF of Wall Street. BlackRock’s application introduced a “surveillance sharing agreement,” under which information about market trading and clearing activities are shared between entities to avoid the possibility of market manipulation.

BlackRock’s application led ARK Invest and 21Shares to amend their third application for a spot BTC ETF to include a similar surveillance agreement. Other asset managers that refiled or amended their applications in the past days include Invesco, WisdomTree, Valkyrie and Fidelity. ARK Invest, however, is reportedly a front-runner in this race.

ETFs track a specific index and are generally traded on exchanges. In the cryptocurrency market, a fund that tracks the price of one or multiple digital tokens and consists of various cryptocurrencies is called a cryptocurrency ETF. 

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have been denied since 2017 by the SEC. In Canada, however, the financial product is already available. Three significant funds — Purpose Bitcoin, 3iQ CoinShares and CI Galaxy Bitcoin — are all directly invested in spot Bitcoin.

Magazine: Bitcoin is on a collision course with ‘Net Zero’ promises