Hello everyone, I am Hunter. This article talks about ETFs. As I expected, we only need to focus on one thing in July, that is, whether the cryptocurrency spot ETF can be successfully approved for listing. Recently, major traditional asset management companies have followed the footsteps of Black Rock and submitted applications for cryptocurrency spot ETFs to the SEC and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The cryptocurrency market has also begun to recover slightly because of this good news, and the price of Bitcoin has been rising all the way, currently stabilizing at around US$31,000. This article will focus on analyzing the following issues. #ETF

The first question is, in fact, there are already Bitcoin futures ETFs on the market. What is the difference between it and the Bitcoin spot ETF? Why is it so difficult to apply for a spot ETF? Second, if the application is approved, who will be the biggest winner? Many friends may not be very familiar with the concept of Bitcoin ETF, so let me explain it briefly.

ETF stands for exchange traded fund, which is a fund that can be listed and traded on a stock exchange. Bitcoin ETF means that the funds managed by the fund need to be companies or assets related to Bitcoin. In October 2021, the SEC approved the first Bitcoin futures ETF, proshare Bitcoin strategy ETF, to be listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. So far, a total of 7 companies in the United States have been approved for Bitcoin futures ETF trading licenses. Because the SEC is concerned about the risk of Bitcoin prices being manipulated, Bitcoin futures ETFs cannot directly hold Bitcoin, but can only invest in Bitcoin futures contracts or purchase stocks of companies in the cryptocurrency industry.

In the past, many companies have tried to apply for Bitcoin spot ETFs, but they were all rejected by the SEC. In June 2022, Grayscale, a large cryptocurrency asset management company, submitted an application to the SEC, hoping to transform the closed Bitcoin trust it manages into an open spot ETF. After being rejected by the SEC, Grayscale sued the SEC in court, and the verdict is expected to come out at the latest in the fall of this year, which is 789. The main reason why Bitcoin spot ETFs are difficult to pass is that the SEC believes that Bitcoin's supervision is not transparent enough, there are risks of price fraud and human manipulation, and the main platform exchanges for Bitcoin transactions have not registered with the SEC. In short, it is non-compliant, so no company has broken this deadlock for so many years. In early June of this year, Black Rock BlackRock once again submitted an application for a Bitcoin spot ETF to the SEC, which has stirred up the hearts of other companies that have long been eager to move. Moreover, they are well prepared this time. The application also clearly states the regulatory sharing agreement with the exchange, which means that all trading data of this ETF will be under transparent supervision in the future, thus solving the SEC's concerns.

Other companies followed BlackRock's lead and included a regulatory sharing agreement in their applications. Currently, the companies that have submitted applications include BlackRock, Fidelity, Zhitong Finance, Fanqi, ARK Invest, ARK Investments and Shunjing. Except for BlackRock, which submitted its application to Nasdaq, the other companies all cooperated with the Chicago Board Options Exchange. On June 30, the SEC informed the two major exchanges that their applications were insufficient because they did not clearly share the regulatory agreement with the fund sponsor. On the afternoon of June 30, the Chicago Board Options Exchange resubmitted the application documents for these companies, and Nasdaq also resubmitted the application documents for BlackRock on July 3. Generally speaking, the SEC needs to publish these documents on its website as soon as possible, and has 7 days to think about whether to directly reject or accept the gift. Once the 15-day publicity period is over, the SEC must make a preliminary review within 45 days and has a maximum of 240 days to approve or reject the application.

Then the second question is, now that so many companies are scrambling to submit applications, who will be the biggest winner? There is no doubt that this question was put in June. Black Rock, because it has the first-mover advantage, as the world's largest asset management company, once it is approved first, it will surely attract the most investors to enter the market. This is a completely blue ocean. Any institution that enters the market later, even if it only plays for a few days, can only compete with each other to grab the remaining share.

But now Black Rock can’t laugh anymore, because the SEC rejected this batch of applications at the same time, and other companies resubmitted their applications first, and this time the chances of the applications being approved are very high, so the first-mover advantage has shifted to other companies, including Fidelity, Suning, ARK Management Company and Vanchi. Among them, Fidelity, which has a larger asset management scale, seems to have a greater relative advantage at present.

Is it very likely that the SEC will approve the Bitcoin spot ETF this time? Or are you pessimistic and think that the SEC will not approve it so easily? Please leave your opinion in the comment section! #BTC