ARK Investment Management, led by Bitcoin bull Cathie Wood, is committed to launching a spot Bitcoin ETF in the US. The company partnered with European cryptocurrency manager 21Shares to update the application for the proposed ETF on November 20, according to an updated prospectus.
ARK and 21Shares’ initial ARK ETF collaboration.
Following the collaboration between ARK and 21Shares, the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF now exists and will trade on the BZX Exchange under the symbol ARKB. It is scheduled to be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).
This is the third time ARK and 21Shares have revised their Bitcoin ETF application report since it was first submitted in April this year, meaning that progress has been made more accurate since the last update in October.
In September 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed its decision on Ark’s application and set January 11, 2024 as the new review date.
Spot Bitcoin ETF Evangelism
Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said the latest filings feature numerous updates to risk disclosures under institutional funding standards. According to Balchunas, following such stringent conditions is unexpected even for a hybrid model and suggests SEC approval is taking shape.
As Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noted, ARK’s active update to its S-1 application could be seen as indicating some promising developments in SEC discussions. On the other hand, many other spot Bitcoin ETF applicants have left their documents unchanged. This means that of the 12 primary investors with no updates as of mid-November, only two are from Franklin Templeton and Global X, suggesting a level of prior participation from applicants.