ARK Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood says that the odds are now better that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve a spot market Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF).
In a new Yahoo Finance interview, Wood says that the SEC is, for the first time, starting to engage with spot Bitcoin ETF applicants. Wood has submitted an application in partnership with 21Shares.
“Well, something has changed. So we had put in a number of times a filing and we were just denied, never got any questions really, never got any response. This time, this summer, we got questions back from the SEC. Now normally when you get questions from the SEC, you’re just saying, Oh my goodness. We were thrilled to get questions back because it means they’re engaged now.
Now we have met a number of the research people at the SEC on the research side. And they are extremely sophisticated. They know what they’re talking about, and the level of sophistication of their questions suggested, Okay, now they’re moving deeply into this. And we answered those questions. We have not heard back. That’s a good sign, too. They never tell you that you’ve satisfied them.
But if you don’t hear from them that usually means that you have satisfied the answers to the requests. So that was new. And we also know that BlackRock has questions. We put our answers in first. I think that they have followed and I’m not sure about anyone else…
Something has changed. That’s good. The odds [for approval] have gone up.”
Wood also says that the deadline for the SEC to act on their application is January 10th, 2024.
“January 10th is the final deadline. They’ve been able to push it. It’s very orchestrated, push it, push it. But the final– they either approve or deny on January 10th.”
Wood believes the SEC would approve multiple applicants at once.
She also says that there could be some complications if Grayscale decides to sue the SEC over issues related to the company’s desire to convert an existing Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot Bitcoin ETF.
“There’s only one wrinkle… We know Grayscale wants to convert to an ETF. I don’t know how practical that is or if the SEC will let them or if they need a special dispensation. I just don’t know the rules. Grayscale has said it will sue the SEC again if it denies the conversion. If they were to do that before January 10th, I don’t know if that will throw everything up in the air again.”
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