ARK Invest, in collaboration with 21Shares, has added a novel element to their third Bitcoin ETF application: a surveillance sharing agreement.
Seeking to strengthen their proposal, ARK Investment Management has revised their Bitcoin ETF application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), drawing parallels to a recent application by BlackRock.
The updated proposal now features a surveillance-sharing pact with the CME futures markets and possibly a crypto exchange, with Coinbase being the most likely, as suggested by ETF analyst Eric Balchunas from Bloomberg, via a Tweet.
In the race to the finish line for the first Bitcoin ETF in the US, ARK’s amended filing puts them ahead in the competition.
Cathie Wood’s ARK and European asset manager 21Shares lodged their third application for a spot BTC ETF in April, following unsuccessful attempts in 2021 and 2022. The regulator had previously denied these applications due to the non-adherence to the practice rules and Exchange Act stipulations for listing a financial product.
In a recent discussion, ETF analyst James Seyffart from Bloomberg Intelligence claimed that ARK’s application is currently leading the pack in the race for a Bitcoin ETF. Seyffart noted that, “ARK, 21Shares, and the Cboe (Chicago Board Options Exchange) are in pole position, with a SEC decision expected on Aug. 13, 2023. For the rest of the 19b-4 applications, such as the one from BlackRock, no date has been given.”
Should ARK secure approval in the forthcoming weeks, the race isn’t over as a surveillance-sharing agreement with a cryptocurrency exchange is still required. Coinbase appears to be a strong candidate, yet it has already partnered with BlackRock as a potential Bitcoin custodian, awaiting approval.
Reflecting on this situation, Balchunas tweeted, “Is BlackRock going to let Coinbase form an SSE agreement that could help another issuer outpace them in the market? If that’s the case, ARK would need to seek another crypto exchange.”
Joining the application frenzy on June 16, BlackRock’s application inspired a series of similar filings on Wall Street, especially from those who had previously applied. In the past few days, financial firms like Valkyrie, WisdomTree, and Invesco have re-submitted their applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Attempts to reach ARK Invest for comments by Cointelegraph have so far been unsuccessful.