Fidelity applies for Wise Origin BTC Trust, marking its 7th application this year.
Asset manager Fidelity Investments has submitted an application for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), as reported in a filing by Cboe BZX Exchange with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 19.
Fidelity’s application comes after BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF application on June 15, as well as those from WisdomTree, Invesco, and Valkyrie in the subsequent days. According to Bloomberg, seven applications for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF have been filed this year. Similar to WisdomTree and Invesco, Fidelity is making a second attempt at a spot BTC ETF. Like other spot BTC ETF applications, this one states that the CME Bitcoin Futures market “represents a regulated market of significant size as it relates to the spot bitcoin market.” It provides in-depth arguments and extensive research to support this viewpoint. The 193-page application states:
“The lack of a Spot Bitcoin ETP [exchange-traded product] exposes U.S. investor assets to significant risk because investors that would otherwise seek crypto asset exposure through a Spot Bitcoin ETP are forced to find alternative exposure through generally riskier means.”
It goes on to mention the bankruptcies of FTX, Celsius, BlockFi, and Voyager Digital as riskier alternatives in the past. It also argues that investors may purchase shares in unrelated businesses such as Tesla and MicroStrategy, which have significant BTC investments, to gain BTC exposure themselves.
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Fidelity Digital Assets Services, a regulated custodian licensed by the New York Department of Financial Services, would be responsible for the custody of the trust’s BTC. Cboe BZX stated that it would enter into a surveillance-sharing agreement with a United States-based cryptocurrency exchange.
Michael Saylor: BlackRock, Citadel, & Fidelity Will Send #Bitcoin to $1,000,000 “It looks like a spot ETF will probably get approved. There’s massive political pressure to approve one. The circumstances have changed & now there’s a way for the SEC to approve it without… pic.twitter.com/NkEepPPbnF
— Crypto News Alerts (@blockchainYes) June 28, 2023
The SEC has yet to approve a single application for a spot BTC ETF. The Fidelity 19b-4 form indicates that the company is reviving its Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust product, for which it filed an application in March 2021. That application was rejected after two deliberation extensions.
Fidelity has approximately $11 trillion in assets under administration.
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