BlackRock’s iShares Files Paperwork for Spot Bitcoin ETF

The iShares unit of fund management giant BlackRock (BLK) filed paperwork Thursday afternoon with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the formation of a spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF.

To be named the iShares Bitcoin Trust, the fund’s assets are to “consist primarily of bitcoin held by a custodian on behalf of the Trust,” according to the filing. That custodian will by crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN), said the filing.

CoinDesk earlier on Thursday reported on BlackRock’s intention to soon file for a bitcoin ETF.

Though approving a number of futures-based bitcoin ETFs, the SEC has notably rejected other fund management company attempts at opening a spot bitcoin ETF, including those from Grayscale, VanEck, and WisdomTree.

BlackRock, however, may not be as easy for the SEC to turn away. It’s the world’s largest asset manager with more than $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM) and the company and its CEO Larry Fink has political power to possibly match that of the SEC and its leader Gary Gensler.

“The proposed ETF is benchmarked against the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate,” said crypto exchange Kraken, commenting on the filing. “CF Benchmarks takes price data exclusively from cryptocurrency exchanges that adhere to the highest possible standards of market integrity and transparency. This protects investors as products benchmarked against it can then consistently and reliably track the spot price of the underlying asset.”

The price of bitcoin is gaining a bit on the news, rising about 1% to just shy of $25,700.

Updated (22:20 UTC, June 15, 2023): Adds additional context and comment from Kraken.