- Ark Invest has joined hands with 21Shares to file for a Bitcoin ETF.
- While Ark Invest assists in marketing the ETF, the Trust sponsored by 21Shares will hold BTC.
Ark Invest, a New York-based asset management firm with about $50 billion assets under management, has joined the long list of firms that have filed for a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (EFT) with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to a report, the proposal was filed in partnership with 21Shares, a European Exchange-Traded Product issuer. The new offering: the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF will be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) BZX exchange. Several filings have so far been made by CBOE in a bid to launch similar funds including VanEck and WisdomTree’s Bitcoin ETF.
The great folks over at @21Shares_ just filed for a Bitcoin ETF in partnership with Cathie Wood and @ARKInvest.@hany and the team continue to build one of the most important and valuable asset managers in the industry.
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) June 28, 2021
Based on the offering, the ETF will involve holding Bitcoin directly, then tracking the S&P BTC index, a tool created by the S&P 500. It is designed to pick data from Bitfinex, Binance, Bittrex, Coinbase Pro, Gemini, Bitstamp, and other exchanges. The idea is to unify prices using qualitative and quantitative metrics.
While Ark Invest assists in marketing the ETF, the Trust sponsored by 21Shares will hold BTC. 21Shares is the fourth largest institutional crypto asset issuer by assets under management. It has an AUM of $1 billion. Cathie Wood, the founder, and CEO of Ark Invest is a board member of 21Shares.
21Shares may have easy route to the US market
Commenting on the partnership, ETF analyst Eric Balchunas stated that the Bitcoin ETF will be of significant benefit to 21Shares if approved by the SEC. According to him, the company will have an easy route into the US market. Getting a Bitcoin ETF approved is a huge challenge as all requests have so far been rejected. Just recently, two Bitcoin ETFs filed by VanEck and Valkyrie Digital Assets saw their decisions delayed as the review period for each request has been extended by 45 days. Regardless, Wood believes that the odds of Bitcoin ETFs being approved by the SEC have improved with the recent crypto retracement.
Ark Invest has been very active in the market recently with several purchases and partnerships. In April, they purchased nearly $246 million worth of Coinbase shares. The company in May also purchased 1.2 million additional Coinbase shares to take its holdings to 4.2 million.
Wood has always shown a strong interest in crypto-related topics, with Ark Invest collaborating with Jack Dorsey’s Square to publish a research report to debunk the popular myth that Bitcoin mining destroys the environment. According to the research, Bitcoin mining incentivizes the environment.
Instead, as crypto mining, energy storage, and AI technologies converge, the adoption of renewable energy is likely to accelerate!
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