Coinmarketcap reports that Bitcoin crossed the $30,000 mark on Wednesday. A flurry asset management firms are vying for the top spot in the U.S. Bitcoin ETF.
The biggest names are in line this time.
BlackRock, with its $10 trillion of assets under management and the largest asset management company in the world, filed last week for a Bitcoin ETF.
According to the filings, Coinbase Custody Trust Company is the custodian of Bitcoins and the Bank of Mellon New York holds the fiat of the fund. The filing was quickly followed by other companies.
WisdomTree filed a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday to launch the WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust at the CBOE BZX Exchange. The fund’s ticker will be BTCW if it is approved. The CF Benchmarks Index will be updated every 15 seconds to capture the spot Bitcoin price.
WisdomTree has filed for an ETF that tracks Bitcoin spot three times before, in 2021 and again in 2022. All applications have been rejected by the SEC.
Invesco, an asset manager with assets of $1.5 trillion, has reactivated their application for a Bitcoin ETF.
Cathie Wood, Grayscale Seek Spot Bitcoin ETF
Other bidders have also been competing for an ETF. This includes Cathie’s ARK Invest, and Grayscale.
Grayscale is trying to get SEC approval for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust( GBTC), to become a Bitcoin Spot ETF. GBTC is traded at a discounted price to its net asset values.
If converted into a spot-ETF, the discount will disappear, increasing returns for investors. Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein estimates that this could amount to a couple of billion dollars.
IBD MarketSmith reports that GBTC has surpassed a buy-point of 16.95 in the past week, due to a recent surge in filings.
CBOE Global Markets and Cathie Wood’s firm filed the ARK Shares Bitcoin ETF in May. The CBOE’s and Cathie Wood’s firm had made many previous attempts. These filings have been rejected by the SEC so far.
This time, a proposed rule from January would include any platform “that allows trading of any type of securities.” This could include cryptocurrencies. After exchanges are compliant, an ETF that tracks Bitcoins on the spot may meet SEC requirements.