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In Yet Another Delay SEC Pushes Spot BTC ETF Decision to Jan 27
The US will have to wait until at least early 2023 for its first spot BTC ETF.
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According to a Tuesday report, the Securities and Exchange Commission postponed the deadline for its decision on Cathie Wood’s ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF. The SEC spent 2022 both delaying and rejecting various such exchange-traded funds with the latest one to get struck down being WisdomTree’s proposal.
SEC Pushes the Decision on ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF to 2023
A spot Bitcoin ETF jointly created by Cathie Wood’s ARK, and a Swiss investment-products issuer 21Shares already made several attempts to launch a spot BTC fund in the US. So far, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been consistently either delaying making a decision or rejecting the proposal.
This Tuesday, the Commission decided to postpone its ruling once again. According to the new deadline, the SEC is to make a decision on ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF on January 27th, 2023. If approved, the fund will be listed and traded on Cboe Global Markets (CBOE.Z).
While the first Bitcoin ETF in the US was launched and reached a $1 billion valuation already in 2021, the SEC has yet to approve a spot BTC ETF in the country. Unlike the funds currently available, a spot ETF would be traded based on the actual prices—and not derivatives like futures, for example—and would be listed on a standard securities exchange.
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Bitcoin ETFs Throughout 2022
ARK and 21Shares aren’t the only companies to try and have a spot BTC ETF listed in the United States in 2021. Other high-profile attempts were made this year by WisdomTree, One River, and Greyscale. Every proposal so far has been rejected and the current attempt by ARK and 21Shares is their second one this year.
The Commission struck down One River’s proposal in May, WisdomTree’s in October, and Greyscale’s in late June. Outside the United States, several spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have been launched most notably in Canada and Australia. In November 2022 Galaxy moved to launch a BTC fund in Brazil.
2022 also saw some already extant Bitcoin exchange-traded funds go down. Early in October, Valkyrie announced its plan to liquidate its ETF by the end of the month. Even more recently, it was reported that Australia’s oldest BTC ETF would be delisted in the near future.
Do you think the SEC will finally approve a spot BTC ETF in January? Let us know in the comments below.
Tim Fries
Tim Fries is the cofounder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate on the investment team at RW Baird's US Private Equity division, and is also the co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.
