SEC Approves Milestone: 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs Greenlit, Signaling a New Era for Cryptocurrency Investment

After more than a decade since the initial application for a spot bitcoin ETF, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has granted approval for all 11 applications from spot bitcoin ETF issuers. This milestone has the potential to be a pivotal moment for the crypto industry, opening up opportunities for both institutional investors and the general public to invest in the leading digital asset more easily.

The approved issuers include BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust, WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust, VanEck Bitcoin Trust, Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund, Hashdex Bitcoin ETF, and Franklin Bitcoin ETF. Six of these ETFs will be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), three on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and two on Nasdaq.

Fees for the issuers range from as low as 0.2% to as high as 1.5%. Several, including ARK and 21Shares, BlackRock, Bitwise, Fidelity, Wisdomtree, Valkyrie, Invesco, and Galaxy, are offering introductory waivers with zero fees (except for BlackRock at 0.12%) for a limited time. Spot-based ETFs enable investors to indirectly own an asset by purchasing shares of the fund that holds that asset (e.g., BlackRock) rather than directly owning it. In contrast, futures-based ETFs use contracts allowing investors to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined future price, providing indirect ownership through the purchased fund.

The approved ETFs as the first step in bringing established financial products and structures from Wall Street to digital assets, making them more accessible and understandable for people.

Before this approval, the only crypto-based ETFs in the U.S. were linked to futures contracts with bitcoin and ethereum, traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In 2021, BITO, the first bitcoin-linked futures ETF in the U.S., garnered substantial demand during its inaugural year, eventually becoming one of the largest and most traded crypto ETFs.