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Cboe Makes Third Attempt to List ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
After facing two rejections, Cboe filed with the SEC for the third time to try and have a spot BTC EFT listed in the US.
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On Tuesday, May 9th, Cboe Global Markets made a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to list the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF. This is the third such attempt to list the spot BTC exchange-traded fund. The last bit was rejected by the SEC in late January.
Cboe Seeks SEC Approval to List Spot BTC ETF For the Third Time
According to a report from Tuesday, Cboe Global Markets recently made its third attempt to list the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF. The exchange-traded fund, created by Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest and the digital asset trading company 21Shares, would be the first spot BTC ETF in the US if approved.
There have already been several attempts to list the fund but all have been rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission—one attempt was struck down in April 2022, and the other, after several delays, in January 2023. The SEC has, however, approved several other types of Bitcoin ETFs over recent years.
Additionally, Ark’s partner, 21Shares, was recently forced to close six of its other cryptocurrency-focused products citing waning interest. These were, however, relatively minor funds and had total assets worth around $700,000.
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SEC’s History of Crushing Down Spot Bitcoin ETFs
21Shares and Ark are far from the only firms to have attempted in vain to list a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States. The Securities and Exchange Commission has on all occasions struck down proposals from numerous firms including One River, Wisdom Tree, Grayscale, and VanEck.
The SEC even became the target of a lawsuit in the summer of 2022 in which Grayscale argued that the Commission’s decision was “discriminatory”. Oral arguments held in March 2023 are widely seen as favorable for the plaintiffs as the panel of judges proved highly skeptical of SEC’s reasoning for the many rejections.
More recently, after rejecting VanEck’s latest bid, the Commission faced opposition from within. Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mar Uyeda faulted their agency for applying their otherwise consistent set of rules in a highly strict way solely when assessing applications for spot BTC ETFs.
Editorial note (May 10th, 2023, 05:49 PM EST): A typo in the first subheading was fixed.
Do you think the US is finally set to have a spot BTC ETF approved? 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.
