Bitcoin ETF Deadline Looms: ‘All Systems Go’ Says Analysts

Today is the day the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approves (or rejects or delays) one of at least 11 pending Bitcoin ETF applications — its own deadline.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas predicts that if funds are approved today, they will be available as soon as markets open on Thursday, January 11. .

He is one of the ETF analysts closely following what has been dubbed the “Cointucky Derby.”

The crypto industry is eagerly waiting for the SEC to approve the position. Bitcoin ETF In the US for 10 years. (They have been trading around the world for years.) Such a product allows traders to gain exposure to Bitcoin without having to purchase or hold BTC themselves.

Potential issuers BlackRock, Fidelity, WisdomTree and Grayscale have filed multiple amendments to their S-1 filings since earlier in the week to satisfy comments from the SEC, and are still in the process. The amendments provided new details about authorized participants and fees.

In another round of last-minute updates, BlackRock and ARK Invest have again dropped fees on their funds. BlackRock now charges a 0.25% fee on the fund and a 0.12% promotional fee on the first $5 billion in assets under management for 12 months.

Meanwhile, ARK 21Shares has lowered its payout to 0.21%. The company said it will stick to its plan to waive ETF fees entirely until the fund acquires $1 billion in assets or within the first six months.

SEC rules allow the securities regulator to delay its decisions for up to 240 days after an application is received. For ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, the SEC has run out of additional days to delay a decision – it can either approve or deny the application now.

All this happened yesterday in the shadow of the fake market moving market. The SEC's Twitter account was hacked and used to send an “unauthorized” message saying that all Bitcoin ETFs were approved.

15 minutes later, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler took to his personal Twitter account to warn that the message was fake. But the damage was already done: the market crashed and Bitcoin sank below $45.oo earlier this morning. According to CoinGecko, it has recovered slightly since then and is now trading at $45,153.03, or 3% below its price.

Now, US lawmakers have written to Chairman Gensler to ask for “clarity” about the action.

In the past 24 hours, nearly $96 million in Bitcoin options have been liquidated. The split of long (bullish) and short (pessimistic) traders is telling: About $60 million of liquidity was in long contracts, which is good for betting. The price of Bitcoin will arise. The rest are on.