KEY POINTS
- Last Friday, BlackRock submitted the amended 19-4b for its spot Bitcoin ETF proposal
- BlackRock has named JPMorgan and Jane Street Capital as authorized participants
- Bitcoin was trading in the green zone at $44,138.26 Sunday afternoon
BlackRock, the New York-based asset management titan, anticipates its official enter into the cryptocurrency industry as a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund issuer this Wednesday, journalist Charles Gasparino has said.
After several paperwork submissions and meetings with SEC officials, the long wait for the first-ever spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. may be over as a report from Fox Business' Gasparino claims that BlackRock, one of the hopeful issuers, expects its application to be approved this Wednesday.
SCOOP: @BlackRock to cut 3% of workforce as firm expects @SECGov approval for BTC ETF on Weds — https://t.co/eBVrYkagCP
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) January 6, 2024
Last Friday, BlackRock, along with other hopeful issuers like ARK 21 Shares, Grayscale Investments, Invesco and Valkyrie, submitted their 19-4b forms for the proposed crypto investment vehicle. The CBOE BZX exchange submitted paperwork for VanEck, WisdomTree, Pando Asset AG and Franklin Templeton.
BlackRock named JPMorgan and Jane Street Capital as authorized participants for its spot Bitcoin ETF but it was reported last week that multinational bank Goldman Sachs was in discussion with the investment company to be one of its APs.
Ahead of the deadline for the SEC to make a decision on the spot Bitcoin ETF proposals, former SEC chair Jay Clayton said the "approval is eventually inevitable."
However, Clayton's statement was slammed by crypto personalities, who blamed him for the lack of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. because he blocked them during his tenure as the head honcho of the agency.
Digital Chamber CEO Perianne Boring blasted the former SEC chairman, saying, "I agree that spot #bitcoin ETFs are inevitable. But let's not forget that Mr. Clayton blocked spot bitcoin ETFs during his tenure as SEC Chair during the Trump administration."
Crypto Law founder John Deaton added, "Without Jay Clayton's self-serving tenure at the SEC, Gensler would not have been able to arbitrarily and capriciously deny a Spot ETF. He was 💯 wrong to block the ETF. Remember as well: Clayton met with Gensler the day before he filed the @Ripple/#XRP case, claiming all XRP constituted illegal securities."
ONE HUNDRED PERCENT ACCURATE
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) January 7, 2024
Without Jay Clayton’s self-serving tenure at the SEC, Gensler would not have been able to arbitrarily and capriciously deny a Spot ETF. He was 💯 wrong to block the ETF. Remember as well: Clayton met with Gensler the day before he filed the… https://t.co/oj5ITJihZ6
The world's oldest and largest crypto asset by market capitalization was trading in the green zone at $44,138.26, with its 24-hour trading volume down by 0.93% at $18,433,938,004 as of 2:20 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Bitcoin's latest price action represents a 0.38% spike in its value on the day and a 3.55% gain over the last seven days.
Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Bitcoin's current circulating supply stands at 19,592,337 BTC, and its market cap is at $865,406,718,984.
