In June 2021 Ark Investment Management submitted a 21 Shares spot BTC ETF application on the Cboe BZX exchange for listing.
The ARK application for 21 Shares BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been officially rejected by the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On Thursday’s filed report of the United States Security and Exchange Commission has disapproved a suggested change of rule by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) BZX Exchange for listing and trading shares of the ARK Investment Management 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF. The Security and Exchange Commission stated that the suggested change of rule, basically published in the Fed Register in Aug 2021 for comment, was not designed to block actions and operations which are manipulative and fraudulent nor to protect the interest of the public and investors.
The Security and Exchange Commission stated that the Cboe BZX exchange failed to meet the conditions of financial product listing under the rule of the practice and Exchange Act. Under such conditions, exchanges that seek for listing a BTC ETC require to have a complete surveillance sharing arrangement with a regulated market of considerable size which is related to basic or refer BTC assets.
A European-based exchange trade product issuer 21Shares, applied for BTC ETF to Ark Investment in Jun 2021 to list on Cboe BZX Exchange under the stock of ARKB. The Security and Exchange Commission would take 180 days for reaching any decision or could open the offer for public comments. The regulatory agency broadens its consideration window until April.
Any type of application to list the shares in the United States for spot crypto ETF has not been approved by the Security and Exchange Commission to date, however, the green light has been given to investment firms that are linked with Bitcoin futures, such as the offering of Valkyrie, ProShares and VanEck.
21 Shares was the biggest institutional cryptocurrency product issuer until Oct 2021, with above $2 billion in assets according to the management reports.
Another big asset manager Grayscale would like to see the decision made by the regulatory agency on spot BTC ETF, also launched a movement in Feb focusing to encourage investors in the United States for submitting their comments to SEC. The regulatory agency is expected to decide by Jul 6 on Grayscale changing its BTC Trust in a spot Bitcoin ETF.