Nasdaq executive says BlackRock’s first Bitcoin ETF rejection was ‘purely procedural,’ not final

An aboriginal dismissal of BlackRock’s planned spot Bitcoin ETF should not impact its eventual success, according to statements from Nasdaq enforcement Giang Bui connected Sept. 13.

BlackRock filed an exertion for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded money (ETF) connected June 15. While BlackRock filed Form S-1 to registry its product, Nasdaq was liable for filing Form 19-b4, which proposes regularisation changes needed to database the product.

On June 30, the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) declared the second filing, on with others, inadequate, starring to its aboriginal rejection. This decision, however, pertains much to regulatory procedural issues than to the substance oregon imaginable viability of the product.

However, those aboriginal rejections whitethorn not beryllium a atrocious motion for the applicants. Giang Bui, Nasdaq’s Head of U.S. Equities & ETPs, told Forbes:

“Once the speech files [19-b4], the SEC has 7 concern days to cull it if it determines that it doesn’t comply with the SEC rules related to form. The rejection astatine that signifier is purely procedural, alternatively than an denotation of viability of the product.”

After that archetypal rejection, Nasdaq and others filed updates for assorted ETF applications and explicitly listed Coinbase arsenic a surveillance-sharing statement partner. Bui acknowledged this by stating that it is antithetic to database partners successful this way; however, she said that the precocious summation was Nasdaq’s effort to marque its filing “as beardown arsenic possible.”

Other spot Bitcoin ETFs are pending

BlackRock’s projected spot Bitcoin ETF is not the lone exertion of its type. Nasdaq is simultaneously handling a akin connection from Vaklyrie Investments. Meanwhile, different exchange, Cboe, is handling proposals from different plus absorption firms including Ark Invest, VanEck, WisdomTree, Invesco, and Fidelity. NYSE Arca is handling an ETF connection from Bitwise. Many of those proposals are highly akin and picture a surveillance-sharing statement with Coinbase.

Elsewhere, Grayscale aims to crook its existing GBTC money into a spot Bitcoin ETF successful a somewhat antithetic manner. Bui acknowledged Grayscale’s connection and its recent ineligible victory, noting that Nasdaq is “analyzing what that means for [its] filings.”

In precocious August, the SEC delayed its decision connected astir of the supra spot Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC is expected to determine connected definite filings successful October.

The station Nasdaq enforcement says BlackRock’s archetypal Bitcoin ETF rejection was ‘purely procedural,’ not final appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.