SEC Accepts Amendment Filings Ahead of ETF Decision

The Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States has started to receive submissions from exchanges, indicating a move towards the green light for the listing of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

On January 5, amendments under rule 19b-4 were submitted for spot BTC ETF proposals by several asset managers, including BlackRock, Valkyrie, Grayscale, Bitwise, Hashdex, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, VanEck, and WisdomTree.

These submissions represent one of the final steps in the SEC's approval procedure, however, S-1 documents need to be finalized before U.S. exchanges can initiate the listing of shares of investment securities that are directly linked to cryptocurrencies.

There is speculation from some specialists that the final green light for these spot Bitcoin ETFs might come before January 10, which is the deadline for a proposal from ARK Invest and 21Shares. Such an approval could signify a broader acceptance of cryptocurrencies both in the United States and globally.

Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, expressed his optimism in a post on X (previously known as Twitter) regarding the SEC's likely approval of a Bitcoin ETF by the beginning of the following week:

“Yeah it’s basically done. Latest I’m hearing (from multiple sources) that final S-1s are due 8am on Monday as SEC is trying to line everyone up for Jan 11th launch.”

Conversely, the overall sentiment among U.S. financial advisors is less certain regarding the SEC's endorsement of the offering.

A Cointelegraph report on January 4 revealed that a mere 39% of financial advisors in the U.S. anticipate the approval of a Bitcoin ETF this year.

In a survey conducted by ETF issuer Bitwise, financial advisors nationwide, including registered investment advisors, financial planners, institutional investors, and wirehouse representatives, were polled on various questions.

When asked to predict when a spot Bitcoin ETF might receive approval, only 39% of the participants indicated the year 2024.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-closer-spot-bitcoin-etf-approval

https://listingcenter.nasdaq.com/assets/rulebook/nasdaq/filings/SR-NASDAQ-2023-016_Amendment_1.pdf

https://twitter.com/JSeyff/status/1743387665536311534

https://twitter.com/EricBalchunas/status/1743388368094756929