ARK Invest’s Amended Spot Bitcoin ETF Proposal A ‘Good Sign For Future Approval’

While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed its decision on the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications, ARK Invest and 21Shares amended its BTC ETF filing in response to the concerns highlighted by the regulator. According to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, this could be a “good sign for future approval.”

The recent update on the joint spot Bitcoin ETF application for approval of ARK Invest and 21 Shares underscored information on the proposed BTC ETF, as well as practices on how it will custody assets and determine the values of the assets.

“Adding details stating that the ETF’s #Bitcoin will be held on an individual wallet and not commingled. This all signals to us that Ark/21Shares & likely others are talking with the SEC about things they want cleared up in these docs. Good sign for future approval IMO,” Seyffart said in a tweet Wednesday.

“Theres a bunch of other minor edits and updates in this new doc. We’re not gonna go through each and every one butttttt its all just a signal that issuers are responding to SEC comments/requests on these documents,” the Bloomberg analyst added.

“ARK has just filed an updated version of its spot bitcoin ETF prospectus. The SEC emailed issuers a few wks ago with comments/qs about their S-1 that they wanted addressed so is very poss ARK has answered all that in this filing,” Bloomberg RTF analyst Eric Balchunas noted.

“There’s 5 extra pages in new S-1 but the new stuff is sprinkled throughout like the two above egs. So what does this mean? It means ARK got the SEC’s comments and has dealt with them all, and now put ball back in SEC’s court. IMO good sign, solid progress,” Bachunas said, before highlighting the possibility of a few more of these exchanges before the SEC gives its decision.

“One note tho: very poss there will be a few back and forths with SEC on these small but imp details. So I would not say approval imminent but I would say the fact that issuers are in a ‘back and forth’ w SEC on this is hugely positive IMO,” Balchunas further said.

Finance lawyer Scott Johnson, who also evaluated the latest update on the ARK21 spot Bitcoin ETF application, noted that the SEC was trying to put unnecessary roadblocks to the applications.

“Just skimmed changed pages on this. If these are actually responsive to SEC comments, it doesn’t look like the agency is putting up any unnecessary roadblocks via disclosure review. At least currently and based on this amendment,” Johnson said.