VanEck Files New Application for Spot Bitcoin ETF

Investment giant VanEck has filed a new application for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

VanEck’s filing for its VanEck Bitcoin Trust comes just eight months after the SEC rejected its previous application and just a day after the regulator denied the spot bitcoin ETF applications of Grayscale Investments and Bitwise. Grayscale Investments is a subsidiary of CoinDesk parent Digital Currency Group.

A spot bitcoin ETF is comprised of bitcoin or assets related to bitcoin's price. Proponents of a spot bitcoin ETF approval have argued the product would offer a low-cost and easily accessible way for individuals and institutions to invest in bitcoin.

The SEC has repeatedly cited concerns about applicants’ ability to prevent market manipulation and protect investors in this type of ETF, although the agency has approved multiple ETFs that track bitcoin through futures.

“Spot commodities and currency markets for which it has previously approved spot ETPs are generally unregulated and that the Commission relied on underlying futures market as the regulated market of significant size that formed the basis for approving the series of Currency and Commodity-Based Trust Shares, including gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, and other commodities and currencies,” VanEck noted in its filing.

Grayscale Investments filed suit against the SEC barely an hour after its ETF filing was rejected, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the SEC's order.