Competitors eyeing a spot in the Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) arena made a last-minute move by submitting their final Form S-1 applications on December 29. Throughout the day, submissions arrived at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from companies like Invesco Galaxy, Bitwise, WisdomTree, and Fidelity, following closely behind initial filers BlackRock, Van Eck, and Valkyrie.
In their filings, Fidelity, WisdomTree, and Invesco Galaxy announced their authorized participants. Invesco Galaxy chose Virtu and JPMorgan Chase, while WisdomTree and Fidelity appointed Jane Street Capital.
Despite the SEC advocating a shift to cash, WisdomTree opted to maintain physical share creation and redemption.
Analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted a brewing price war among competitors. Invesco Galaxy plans to waive fees for the first six months and the initial $5 billion in assets. Fidelity disclosed its fees at 0.39%. Bitwise has yet to reveal the name of its authorized participant but mentioned in a new S-1 that an unnamed party expressed interest in purchasing up to $200 million in ETF shares.
A flurry of companies including BlackRock, Van Eck, Grayscale, Bitwise, WisdomTree, Invesco Galaxy, Fidelity, ARK Invest, Valkyrie, Franklin, Hashdex, Global X ETF, and Pando Asset submitted S-1 applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC designated December 29 as the deadline for revisions to spot BTC ETF S-1 filings. Grayscale's recent filing, a new S-3 on December 27 after Barry Silbert's board resignation, outlined its intent to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an all-cash spot ETF, similar to Van Eck's move earlier that day and BlackRock's earlier revision.
Barry Silbert and his company's founder and CEO, Digital Currency Group, are currently under investigation by the SEC.
