SEC approves spot Bitcoin ETF on accelerated basis. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved multiple spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10, 2024. According to an official SEC filing, spot Bitcoin ETFs have been approved for listing on all registered national exchanges in the US, including Nasdaq, NYSE and CBOE, after a decade-long search for these products.
The approval means the ETFs will begin trading on the CBOE starting at 9 a.m. on January 11, when the U.S. stock market opens. The green light was given to the listing of Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, with 11 issuers mentioned in the SEC’s approval filing. The filing crashed late on January 10, likely due to heavy traffic on the SEC’s website, and then briefly disappeared.
“As described in more detail in the Proposals’ respective amended filings, each Proposal seeks to list and trade shares of a Trust that would hold spot bitcoin, in whole or in part. This order approves the Proposals on an accelerated basis.”
SEC approval of spot BTC ETFs
The companies had stated that they were ready to start trading as early as January 11. VanEck CEO Jan Van Eck confirmed this in an interview with CNBC. Other issuers have also signaled that they may begin spot BTC ETF operations immediately.
Hours before the approval came, BlackRock and ARK 21Shares filed amended filings that disclosed lower fees than previously stated. Bitwise still offers the lowest fees at 0.2%, followed by ARK 21Shares, BlackRock, and Fidelity.
As Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas noted, the so-called fee war may not impact the ultimate performance of these ETFs. It also seems unlikely that companies will change their fees now that the SEC has given the green light for spot BTC ETFs.
Following the SEC’s declaration of acceptance of various proposals, the underlying asset in BTC experienced volatility and price fluctuations. At press time, BTC was trading below $46,000, down over 2%.
BTC also experienced volatile prices on January 9 after the SEC tweeted a fake spot BTC ETF approval message from account X. SEC chairman Gary Gensler said unknown hackers had compromised the page as the news triggered a 6% drop in BTC price, wiping out more than $230 million in crypto positions. According to Coinglass data, $90 million of this collective consisted of leveraged Bitcoin positions.
SEC lawyers have confirmed that an internal communication will be held soon to uncover the root cause behind what US Senators described as a “colossal mistake”. The FBI is reportedly involved in investigations into the matter.
Now that spot Bitcoin ETFs have finally received approval, the next milestone could be the BTC halving in April and inflows into BTC-related TradFi investment vehicles. Wall Street stalwarts like JP Morgan are predicting a gradual capital interest, while crypto-native organizations like Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital are expecting massive price gains of up to 74%.
Responding to claims that BTC markets could see inflows of up to $100 billion in the first year, Bloomberg’s James Seyffart adopted expectations in the range of $10 billion to $15 billion. The ETF expert noted that these flows could be divided into new exposure to Bitcoin and rotation of capital from other vehicles such as Canadian ETFs, crypto mining operations and futures-based products.
Matthew Sigel, head of VanEck’s digital asset research division, predicts $2 billion in inflows in week one and $40 billion in assets under management in the first year. These numbers may increase or decrease depending on a variety of factors, including the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election and changes in government in some 50 other sovereign countries.
Attention may now shift to Ethereum (ETH), which boasts its own ETF craze and upcoming technological advances. ETH has also resisted the fake Bitcoin ETF approval, gaining more than 9% in the last 24 hours.
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