In a recent development, BlackRock and three other issuers met with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Divisions responsible for approving these Spot Bitcoin ETFs. This has ignited further optimism regarding these funds being approved in January.
BlackRock’s Third Meeting With The SEC
In a post shared on his X (formerly Twitter) platform, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart revealed that BlackRock recently met with the SEC. He also noted that this was the third time the asset manager was meeting with the SEC in as many weeks.
BlackRock had previously met with the Commission to discuss its in-kind model which the regulator had its reservations against as it seemed to prefer the cash creation model. However, from the memorandum of the recent meeting (which was held on December 11), there was nothing to suggest that that was the discussion centered on.
Meanwhile, Seyffart also mentioned that three other issuers met with the SEC recently. They include Fidelity, who met with the Commission on December 7, while Grayscale and Franklin met with the Regulator on December 8. It is worth mentioning that this is the second meeting Grayscale is having with the SEC.
Seyffart and his colleague Eric Balchunas continue to stand by their prediction that there is a 90% chance that a Spot BTC ETF will get approved in January. Following his recent post, he was once again quizzed about his stance to which he replied in the affirmative. However, he mentioned that this approval was for the 19b-4 approvals, and he was unsure when they would list.
Why These Meetings Could Be Significant For Bitcoin Spot ETFs
In his post, Seyffart pointed out the fact that both the Division of Trading & Markets and the Division of Corporate Finance were present at each of these meetings. This is significant as these two divisions will ultimately decide if these Spot Bitcoin ETFs will launch or not. As such, this could suggest that both the SEC and these issuers are making headways.
Before now, Seyffart and Balchunas have constantly hammered on the fact that a Spot Bitcoin ETF approval that was likely to come by January 10 is the one by the Division of Trading & Markets. However, before these funds can launch and get listed, they will still need to get the approval of the Division of Corporate Finance, who will sign off on their S-1 filings.
There is a growing belief that the second approval could come soon after the first. Scott Johnsson, a notable attorney from Davis Polk, recently mentioned how the SEC could have held the S-1s until the 19b-4s were approved if they intended to “max delay.”
However, considering that the S-1s are already being filed and the Division of Corporate Finance is already involved early enough, that might not be the case.
