BlackRock, Ark Slash Bitcoin ETF Fees Again Ahead of SEC Deadline
01/10/2024 20:07
(Bloomberg) -- Competition among prospective Bitcoin exchange-traded fund issuers intensified, as companies further slashed fees in a bid to make products more attractive to investors ahead of a regulator’s decision on their future.Most Read from BloombergSEC’s X Account Hacked to Falsely Say Bitcoin ETF ApprovedAmazon’s Twitch to Cut 500 Employees, About 35% of StaffBottled Water Contains More Plastic Particles Than Previously ThoughtUS and Allies Met Secretly With Ukraine on Peace PlanBlackRoc
(Bloomberg) -- Competition among prospective Bitcoin exchange-traded fund issuers intensified, as companies further slashed fees in a bid to make products more attractive to investors ahead of a regulator’s decision on their future.
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BlackRock Inc. lowered the fee on its proposed iShares ETF by five basis points to 0.25%, according to an updated filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. It also lowered its introductory offer on the fund, so that investors will pay a 0.12% fee in the first 12 months or for the first $5 billion in assets, rather than 0.20%.
“BlackRock is really going for the jugular here, this is just a brutal cut,” said Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, in an interview. “They were kind of the favorite anyway because of their brand name and distribution, so for them to cut this low, this soon, is a blow to the rest of the competition.”
Ark Investment Management LLC’s ETF with 21Shares will now be listed with a fee of 0.21%, a separate filing showed, four basis points lower than the fee it had proposed on Tuesday.
The changes come after several Bitcoin ETF hopefuls reduced their fees on Tuesday, including Invesco, Valkyrie and WisdomTree. Bitwise remains the cheapest option that could be offered to investors, listed at 0.20% after an introductory period.
Read more: Four Bitcoin ETF Hopefuls Slash Fees Before Funds Even Launch
With nearly a dozen ETF applications now in the basket, inflows within the first day of trading could reach up to $4 billion, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence note on Wednesday by Balchunas and fellow analyst James Seyfartt.
The SEC is set to make a decision on some Bitcoin ETF applications later on Wednesday. Industry watchers expect the watchdog may give the green light to several issuers at once, avoiding the risk of awarding a first-mover advantage.
Crypto investors have been eagerly awaiting approval of such a fund, viewing it as the key to making mainstream investors more comfortable with digital assets. A false post on the SEC’s X account on Tuesday claimed that the agency had approved the issuance of several Bitcoin ETFs, spurring wild swings in the token’s price.
Bitcoin traded at around the $45,200 mark on Wednesday at 7.30 a.m. in New York, having risen as high as $47,914 on Tuesday following the SEC’s now-debunked post.
(Updates to add chart, context from the third paragraph onward)
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