Spot Bitcoin ETF Issuers Compete on Fees, Offering Discounts

01/11/2024 14:14
Spot Bitcoin ETF Issuers Compete on Fees, Offering Discounts

Following the approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) on spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Spot Bitcoin ETF Issuers Compete on Fees, Offering Discounts

Spot Bitcoin ETF Issuers Compete on Fees, Offering Discounts

Following the approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) on spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), BlackRock, ARK Invest and 21Shares and other issuers have reduced the fees for their ETFs in a bid to gain market share.

In a new S-1 filing on Wednesday, BlackRock announced that it will charge 25 basis points on net asset value, down from its previously disclosed fee of 30 basis points on Monday. The asset management giant is also offering a promotional rate of 12 basis points on the first $5 billion during the first 12 months after listing. ARK Invest and 21Shares also cut its fee, reducing it by 4 basis points to 0.21%. The firms are waiving the fee entirely for the first six months or the first $1 billion in assets, whichever comes first.

These fee reductions follow similar moves by other ETF providers, including Bitwise and Valkyrie, which announced lower fees on Tuesday. Bitwise, a crypto native fund manager, lowered its initial 0.24% charge to 0.20%. Valkyrie is now charging 0.49%, WisdomTree 0.3%, and Fidelity 0.25%. Invesco and Galaxy have also cut their planned fees to 0.39%.

The SEC approved all ETFs at the same time on Jan. 10, after a few days of dramatic developments leading up to the final deadline day. The SEC’s X account was hacked on Tuesday and falsely announced the ETF approval, although there was speculation that the tweet was already drafted to be published today.

While BlackRock, ARK Invest, Bitwise and Valkyrie are cutting fees, Grayscale stands out with a higher fee of 1.5%. Its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) currently has over $28.5B in assets under management, although the introduction of other providers with lower fee structure could see a competition over market share in the highly anticipated Bitcoin ETF market.

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