While Bitcoin continues to linger around $30,000, fund managers are pressing for approval of the first American Bitcoin ETF.
In an application submitted with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States, Global X Digital Assets, a fund manager based in New York, requested approval to launch a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF).
It was filed on Wednesday, and it suggests that the planned Global X Bitcoin Trust, which would be founded in late July of this year as a Delaware statutory trust, will trade on the Cboe bZx cryptocurrency exchange if it is approved. It was decided that The Bank of New York Mellon would be the trust’s administrator. As per the filing:
“The Trust’s investment objective is to reflect the performance of the price of bitcoin less the expenses of the Trust’s operations. The Trust will not seek to reflect the performance of any benchmark or index.”
It is expected that investors in the fund, or their approved financial agents, will receive Bitcoin from the trust, which will be held by an undisclosed bitcoin custody provider.
Global X says that the custodian is a limited purpose trust firm that has been authorised by the New York State Department of Financial Services to conduct digital asset custody services. The custodian is not identified.
According to the filing, the trust itself “will not purchase or, barring a liquidation or extraordinary circumstances described herein, sell bitcoin directly.”
Global X Digital Assets, the trust’s sponsor, is linked with Global X Management Company, also known as Global X, and Mirae Asset Global Investments, which are both affiliated with Global X Management Company. Its headquarters are in Seoul, South Korea, and it manages assets with a total market value of more than $560 billion as of March 2021.
A large amount of Bitcoin ETF applications in the United States early this year, according to Greg King, CEO of Osprey Funds, contributed to Bitcoin’s unprecedented 2021 bull run, according to a report published earlier this week.
According to King, the SEC’s continuous reluctance to approve a cryptocurrency ETF, combined with hawkish regulatory statements in the United States regarding various crypto assets such as stablecoins, has had a part in the coin’s subsequent price decline.
According to King, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States would approve a Bitcoin ETF proposal as early as 2022.