After BlackRock filed its application for a Bitcoin spot ETF with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week, a BTC frenzy is currently underway by major players from the traditional financial sector. Just yesterday, it was made public that Citadel Securities, Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab have launched their new cryptocurrency exchange EDX. Deutsche Bank revealed that it has applied to the German financial regulator for a crypto custody license.
A few hours ago, the world’s fourth-largest ETF manager, Invesco, reactivated its Bitcoin ETF filing. The company filed an updated Form 19b-4 with the SEC. The document states:
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 19(b)(1) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 1 and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,2 Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc. is filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission a proposed rule change to list and trade shares of the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, 3 under BZX Rule 14.11(e)(4), Commodity Based Trust Shares.
The president of the exchange gave the green light to the proposed rule change yesterday, Tuesday, June 20. Remarkably, the Invesco Bitcoin ETF will be a spot ETF. Through the use of professional custodians and other service providers, the trust will provide investors with indirect exposure to Bitcoin, the filing states.
In addition, WisdomTree Investments, the 10th largest ETF provider by assets under management (AUM), also reactivated its application for a Bitcoin spot ETF today. As ETF expert Nate Geraci reported via Twitter, WisdomTree has submitted an application for a spot ETF called “WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust”.
The application shows that the ETF will be listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange with the ticker symbol BTCW. The price of the ETF will be calculated using the CF Bitcoin U.S. Settlement Price, which aggregates price data from various spot exchanges.
TradFi Pounces On Bitcoin ETFs
Notably, both Invesco and WisdomTree first filed for their ETFs in 2021. However, the applications met the same fate as every spot-based ETF to date, being rejected after the SEC utilized the full review period.
BlackRock’s application, however, seems to have breathed new life into the sector. Numerous experts consider BlackRock’s application to have a high chance for approval, and other major TradFi players seem to want to follow suit as quickly as possible.
As Geraci noted, it is remarkable what has happened since BlackRock’s ETF proposal last Thursday:
Quick inventory of spot Bitcoin ETF filings since last Thursday…
iShares (world’s largest ETF issuer)
Bitwise (knows space inside & out)
WisdomTree (top 10 issuer)
Invesco (4th largest issuer)
What changed recently? SEC has been on warpath against crypto. Something’s up.
Crypto expert Scott Melker aka “The Wolf Of All Streets” remarked on the recent events:
Last week we had some of the most bearish news in the history of crypto, led by the SEC actions against Binance and Coinbase. This week we have had arguably the most bullish news ever in crypto, led by BlackRock, Fidelity, Schwab, Citadel, Wisdom Tree etc. Life moves fast.
At press time, the BTC price had recorded an impressive 16% surge since last Thursday and changed hands for $28,940.
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com
