An application for the listing of a BlackRock exchange-traded fund that will represent the price of bitcoin by Nasdaq was resubmitted to the US securities regulator on Monday in order to include new information.
Coinbase Global will provide market surveillance in support of the proposed ETF from the largest asset manager in the world, according to the updated filing, which was made on Thursday and filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The regulator apparently expressed concerns about Nasdaq’s initial disclosures because they were inadequate and ambiguous, prompting the action. In relation to a filing by Fidelity, it had raised similar issues with Cboe.
After a brutal 2022 that saw several cryptocurrency startups fail, notably the stunning crash of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, the digital asset industry is attempting to regain momentum.
Since Coinbase did not register as an exchange, the SEC has filed a lawsuit against it. In May, around half all U.S. dollar-to-bitcoin trading took place on Cboe’s platform, according to the company’s Fidelity bitcoin ETF filing.
In a statement submitted last month to a Manhattan federal court, Coinbase stated that it would urge the judge to dismiss the SEC case because it believes the regulator lacks the legal standing to bring civil claims against the digital assets traded on its platform since they are not “investment contracts” and therefore not securities.
Numerous applications for spot bitcoin ETFs have been denied by the SEC in recent years, including one from Fidelity in January, 2022.
In all the cases, it said the filings were not up to the standards designed to protect investor and public interest by detecting and preventing manipulative and unfair trade practices.
