BlackRock Amends Bitcoin ETF Prospectus, Acknowledges Fierce Competition

BlackRock submitted an amended prospectus for its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday.

Notable changes in BlackRock’s new filing include acknowledgment of the competition in the race for Bitcoin ETF approval, as well as detailed explanations on the product’s pricing and reporting mechanisms.

The world’s largest asset manager filed its first spot Bitcoin application under the title iShares Bitcoin Trust on June 15, 2023.

The asset manager refiled in July shortly after to include a surveillance sharing agreement with its custodian Coinbase and Nasdaq.

BlackRock’s ETF latest changes

Yesterday’s filing reads that “There can be no assurance that the Trust will achieve initial market acceptance and scale due to competition.”

Currently, BlackRock is in the race with at least seven other applicants, including the largest Bitcoin trust fund, Grayscale.

Grayscale recently won a key court case against the SEC after the agency rejected its application to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to a spot ETF. Last week, the SEC opted out of challenging the court’s ruling, boosting confidence in an approval.

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The other significant difference in the new filling is in the pricing details of the ETF in the periodic financial statements filed by BlackRock.

The latest filing provides specific details about how this pricing source is determined in the Trust’s periodic financial statements, including accounting specifications such as “Level 1 input according to ASC Topic 820,” which are not mentioned in the previous drafts.

The new filling also provides a detailed analysis with examples for the pricing of its CF benchmark index. The index aggregates Bitcoin’s price across several exchanges and will form the basis of BlackRock’s ETF.

BlackRock is the third applicant to file an amended spot Bitcoin filing within a week following Ark Invest and Fidelity.

Some experts have suggested that the amendments are a “good sign” and “solid progress” toward an approval.

Edited by Liam Kelly.

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