Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management says it’s first in line to get potential approval for a spot-Bitcoin ETF, despite industry reasoning positing that BlackRock Inc. might be ahead in the race should any product receive regulatory assent.
BlackRock, whose shock filing for a spot product has rocked crypto markets, might be distinguishing its application with the appendage of a “unique” exchange surveillance-sharing agreement that would look to prevent market manipulation, but “other applicants will be able to amend their filings with similar agreements at little cost,” wrote ARK Investment Management analyst Yassine Elmandjra.
In fact, in April, “ARK and 21Shares filed an application with the SEC for a Bitcoin ETF that now is the only one ahead of BlackRock’s,” Elmandjra said.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, earlier this month applied for the iShares Bitcoin Trust, for which Coinbase Global Inc., the biggest crypto exchange in the US, would act as custodian. The filing made a splash in crypto markets thanks to the asset-manager’s stature on Wall Street and elsewhere. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have all rallied since.
Meanwhile, when 21Shares, a crypto exchange-traded-products issuer, and ARK refiled in April, they argued that a spot product would offer US investors protections that currently don’t exist.
