SEC Greenlights Multiple Spot Bitcoin ETFs

On January 10th, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially sanctioned a series of spot Bitcoin ETFs. This landmark decision allows these ETFs to be listed across all major U.S. national exchanges, including the likes of Nasdaq, NYSE, and CBOE. This move culminates a decade-long pursuit for such financial products.

The SEC’s endorsement signifies that trading of these ETFs will commence at the CBOE from 9 am on January 11th, coinciding with the opening of the U.S. stock market.

The SEC’s filing, which temporarily vanished due to a surge in website traffic, highlighted the approval of 11 issuers for listing Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds:

• ARK and 21Shares: ARKB
• Bitwise: BITB
• BlackRock (iShares): IBTC
• Fidelity: FBTC
• Franklin: EZBC
• Grayscale: GBTC
• Hashdex: DEFI
• Invesco Galaxy: BTCO
• VanEck: HODL
• Valkyrie: BRRR
• WisdomTree: BTCW

These issuers are now poised to launch their BTC ETF operations, with some ready to start as early as January 11th. Jan Van Eck, CEO of VanEck, corroborated this in a CNBC interview, and other issuers have expressed similar readiness.

In the hours leading up to the approval, financial giants BlackRock and ARK 21Shares updated their applications to reveal even more competitive fees. Currently, Bitwise leads with the lowest fee at 0.2%, followed closely by ARK 21Shares, BlackRock, and Fidelity. However, as Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas pointed out, this fee competition might not significantly affect the performance of these ETFs, and it’s doubtful that fees will be adjusted now that the SEC has greenlit the spot BTC ETFs.

Following the SEC’s approval, the BTC market exhibited fluctuations and price shifts, with BTC trading below $46,000, marking a decline of over 2% at the time of the report.

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