The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not respond immediately to Wednesday’s new request to create a Bitcoin ETF. Now, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at about $7,500 press time, remaining within the price range of recent months.
Each share of the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust is set to cost a hefty $200,000, according to a filing with the SEC.
It is not clear whether the structure of the ETF or the relative stability of bitcoin will recently help the fund obtain approval. Several companies, including VanEck, have unsuccessfully attempted to launch bitcoin ETFs in the United States.
In January, VanEck withdrew the submission of an ETF based on bitcoin futures, after filing an application for a similar ETF in September. In this third attempt, the company is partnering with SolidX and basing the fund on real rather than future bitcoins.
Bitcoin ETF Attempts’ History
VanEck first applied for an ETF based on bitcoin futures in August but withdrew the application in September at the request of the SEC, as futures did not yet exist. The company and several other companies re-launched their accounts when the CME and Cboe bitcoin futures were launched in December. But they had to withdraw those applications again in January at the request of the SEC.
In one letter the Commission raised concerns such as the extreme volatility of prices and the ability of customers to withdraw funds easily.
SolidX has also had difficulty launching a bitcoin ETF. In March 2017, the SEC rejected the company’s application for a publicly traded product based on physical bitcoins. At the same time, the committee also rejected, and then said it would review, the Winklevoss twins’ proposal for a similar bitcoin fund.
Meanwhile…
VanEck will help market the new ETF bitcoin, SolidX will sponsor or create the underlying index and Bank of New York Mellon will be the custodian, the archive said. If approved, the ETF is slated to trade under the symbol XBTC on Cboe BZX Exchange.
