The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund said in a filing it made on January 3 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it planned to register its shares as securities listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange. Form 8-A, while submitting a file was a requirement for ETF registration with the SEC, it did not guarantee that the investment vehicle would be approved by the agency. The registration for listing shares of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund put out by Fidelity Investments was approved by the American exchange Cboe.
Pension funds and registered investment adviser-based vehicles, among others, will flood into Bitcoin assets if US regulators sanction the first spot exchange-traded fund for the cryptocurrency, according to the president of CBOE Digital. Traditional investors could acquire exposure to Bitcoin through a Bitcoin ETF without having to purchase and maintain the digital asset directly. Put simply, investors could purchase Bitcoin without the need to acquire extensive knowledge regarding cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets.
My understanding here is that this is just a securities registration. In order to list the ETF still needs a 19b-4 approval and they need an effective/approved/completed S-1 document. No 19b-4 yet, I’m still looking towards next week.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart
Here’s an example of another one. This is @BitwiseInvest’s from last Friday. These need to be done before launch. But they don’t mean they’re approved or anything — yet. pic.twitter.com/qLEndxVgwc
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) January 3, 2024
Subsequent to the previous round of regulatory postponements, the SEC is now confronted with the task of determining the status of a limited number of pending Bitcoin ETF applications by January 10. However, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts who have been monitoring ETF activity have refined their forecast and now anticipate that the SEC will issue an announcement between January 8 and January 10.
The Depository Trust and Clearing Company (DTCC) maintains a roster containing the tickers of all active and pre-launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Presently, the CBOE indicates that the Fidelity Bitcoin ETF would trade under the ticker symbol FBTC. A ticker symbol that appears on the DTCC is distinct from SEC approval. In October, markets trembled following the removal of the ticker symbol for BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust from the list, a lesson the cryptocurrency industry learned. Traders interpreted it negatively at the time. However, analysts noted that this was not always the case.
