Hashdex’s decision not to make changes to the S-1 form for its Bitcoin ETF application has led to speculation about the reasons behind it.
On January 8th, as part of the approval process for spot Bitcoin ETFs to be listed on U.S. exchanges, asset managers submitted change requests in the S-1 form. These requests included companies such as Valkyrie, WisdomTree, BlackRock, VanEck, Invesco, Galaxy, Grayscale, ARK Invest, and 21Shares. However, the crypto asset management company Hashdex did not submit any modified form on January 8th, while on January 5th, it submitted a 19b-4 amendment form along with other companies.
This difference sparked various speculations about Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF application. According to a January 8th tweet by Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, Hashdex’s application had a distinctive feature compared to others. Hashdex’s proposal offers an investment product in Bitcoin futures that could also include spot Bitcoin, rather than transforming an existing crypto futures ETF.
Hashdex had actually submitted its application for a spot Bitcoin ETF product to the SEC in August of the previous year. These recent developments have led to speculation about the status of Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF application due to the company’s adoption of a different approach.
Also. All of these have named multiple Authorized participants. Some have 4 named. The firms acting as AP's for these ETFs are:
Jane Street, Virtu, JP Morgan, ABN AMRO, Macquarie, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Marex Capital.
Wonder if "In-Kind" woulda kept some of these guys out?
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) January 8, 2024
At the time of writing, no spot Bitcoin ETF had been approved yet, but many experts recommended submitting applications to the SEC. In October, a U.S. judge ruled that the SEC’s rejection of Grayscale’s proposal was “arbitrary” and ordered a reevaluation of the application.
While the non-submission of the S-1 form suggests a potential delay in Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF if multiple ETFs are approved, it may not change the SEC’s decision-making process for approving or rejecting ETFs. This situation could impact the status of Hashdex’s application, but a broader change in SEC policy might be needed to influence the approval or rejection of ETFs overall.