In case you’ve been on vacation somewhere deep in the jungle over the past week, you probably heard that a spot bitcoin ETF was approved by the SEC on Wednesday afternoon. More than 10 years after the initial attempt by the Winklevoss twins to establish the first bitcoin ETF, the industry has finally crossed the finish line.
In total, 11 different bitcoin ETFs were given the green light, including those from heavyweight issuers BlackRock, Fidelity and ARK.
The decision by the SEC to have all interested potential issuers get everything in order ahead of time in order to approve them all at once was a deliberate one. In the ETF industry, the first mover advantage is a huge one, even if it’s just by a day.
In the battle of blockchain ETFs back in 2018, the Amplify Transformation Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) launched one day ahead of the Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BLCN), now known as the Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF. The result is that, as of today, BLOK has more than $1 billion in assets, while BLCN has just $72 million.
More recently, the original bitcoin futures ETF, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), launched three days ahead of the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF). Today, BITO has $1.8 billion in assets to BTF’s $37 million. The SEC knew that all eyes were going to be on this approval and, not wanting to give the appearance of impropriety or favoritism, wanted to launch all at the same time so they could start on equal footing.
There were, however, some very clear winners on the first day.
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