Valkyrie joins rush with BTC spot ETF application to go with its futures, miners ETFs

The cryptocurrency fund manager is at least the fourth to seek a BTC spot ETF listing in the last week; Fidelity is rumored to be preparing to apply, too.

Cryptocurrency fund manager Valkyrie is applying for a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), joining several other financial firms that have filed similar applications with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the last week. Valkyrie filed an S-1 registration form for a Bitcoin spot ETF with the SEC on June 21. In it, the firm indicated that it would seek to list its fund on the Nasdaq under the symbol BRRR.

Valkyrie is an old hand at Bitcoin (BTC) futures ETFs. It launched the second BTC futures ETF in the U.S., the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF), in October 2021 and launched the Valkyrie Balance Sheet Opportunities (VBB) in December of that year. It liquidated VBB in October 2022. Valkyrie also runs the Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI), which tracks securities of companies that derive their revenue or profits from BTC mining.

On May 16, the company submitted an application for a BTC futures ETF to be called the Valkyrie Bitcoin Futures Leveraged Strategy ETF (BTFD). BTFD would be a fund rather than a trust, as is the case for the firm’s proposed BTC spot ETF.

Anddd we have anotha one! Most interesting here with this updated Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund prospectus — they have changed their exchange to Nasdaq (same as BlackRock) anddd they gave us a ticker $BRRR. pic.twitter.com/3QxeFRfLPy

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) June 21, 2023

Valkyrie was apparently inspired to take action by the recent activity of its competitors. Valkyrie Investments chief investment officer Steven McClurg told Cointelegraph in a Hashing It Out podcast in March that he thought a BTC ETF would only be possible “in a future administration after the next elections or through legislative action.”

However, BlackRock applied to list a BTC spot ETF on the Nasdaq as a trust on June 15. WisdomTree and Invesco filed similar applications on June 20. There are also unconfirmed reports that Fidelity will file an application for a BTC spot ETF. Meanwhile, BTC is rising precipitously, up 6.41% at the time of writing.

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