Several prominent Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers have held meetings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently. With the final details for their products being ironed out, approval chances are increasing.
On Dec. 13, Bloomberg’s ETF analyst James Seyffart reported that four different issuers have met with the SEC regarding their Bitcoin product filings in the last few days.
Bitcoin ETF Momentum Building
BlackRock met with federal regulators on Dec. 12 for the third time in as many weeks. Additionally, Grayscale, Franklin, and Fidelity each had meetings with the SEC last week.
BlackRock recently revised its spot Bitcoin ETF application to make it easier for large banks to participate. It created new shares in the fund with cash as opposed to just using crypto assets.
The SEC must decide on BlackRock’s application by Jan. 15, with the final deadline scheduled for March 15.
Both the Division of Trading and Markets and the Division of Corporate Finance were present at each of these meetings, observed Seyffart.
“Those are the two divisions that will ultimately decide if and when the 19b-4’s & S-1’s would be approved or denied,” he added.
Fellow ETF expert Eric Balchunas commented
“Damn, the SEC is busier than Santa’s elves. BlackRock’s third meeting with them yesterday is the most notable IMO as everyone is waiting to see if they can convince SEC to allow in-kind creations in the first run of approvals.”
He observed that the third BlackRock meeting included Rachel Aquirre, head of all US iShares, while the rest were mostly lawyers.
“How come they don’t invite market makers to these things?” he questioned.
Read more: How To Prepare for a Bitcoin ETF: A Step-by-Step Approach
Meanwhile, ETF Store President Nate Geraci to Valkyrie’s Steven McClurg who said things were “getting very close” on the spot ETF race.
The SEC has no other major hangups outside of share creation/redemption, he said. Moreover, the Valkyrie products are ready to launch and the backend ETF infrastructure is in place.
Furthermore, he noted that the potential approval date was any time after January 2nd. However, analysts including the pair above have eyed Jan. 10 for batch approvals
$100 Billion Inflows an Extreme
In addition to those already mentioned, Bitwise, VanEck, WisdomTree, Invesco Galaxy, and Hashdex are also in the ETF race.
Commenting on the impact of a potential $100 billion flowing into BTC following ETF approval, Seyffart
“This is likely an overestimation of demand in my opinion. Gold ETFs have been around since 2004 in the U.S. and currently have ~$95 billion in assets here.”
He added that spot Bitcoin ETFs getting that much in inflows “would be an EXTREME outlier success case even if measured over multiple years.”
