ETF Expert: All Spot Bitcoin ETF Applications May Be Approved Simultaneously

Crypto ETF expert Stuart Barton, chief investment officer at Volatility Shares, predicts that all spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may be approved at the same time.

Barton’s firm has already secured a bitcoin ETF first — in June, his firm Volatility Shares’ 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX) became the first leveraged crypto ETF in the United States.

Volatility Shares was also the first company to file for an Ethereum (ETH) futures ETF. The SEC did not approve any of the many previous applicants, but despite this, other companies followed Volatility Shares’ lead in filing for an Ethereum futures ETF.

Many of them began trading in October, but despite receiving SEC approval, Barton’s team did not launch their Ethereum ETF.

“We applied first, but we didn’t get a first-mover advantage when all the applications were approved at once,” Barton noted in a phone interview. “This is a precedent-setting event that the SEC may replicate when it considers a spot bitcoin ETF.”

To be sure, Barton’s company could still launch its Ethereum ETF. Given the Ethereum ETF’s slow start — less than $2 million in volume on the first day, and continued poor trading throughout the week — Barton and team may have to go back to the drawing board to work on their product.

“We can launch on any day we want, but now we have a chance to figure out why these ethereum ETFs are so unpopular,” Barton said. “It’s weird. Why is the ethereum ETF so much less popular than the bitcoin ETF? Now we can wait and make very small changes in our product design, and we’ll keep that perspective until we make a decision on exactly what we want to do with it.”

Enthusiasm around spot Bitcoin ETFs continues to grow and has affected retail investors. CoinBase said that the approval of the spot Bitcoin ETF has been partially reflected in the price, but when a false news report said that BlackRock's spot Bitcoin application had been approved, Bitcoin (BTC) surged from $27,900 to $30,000, and nearly $100 million was liquidated in an hour. JPMorgan said that the approval of the spot Bitcoin ETF should be completed within a few months, possibly before January 10, the deadline for Ark 21Shares' application.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst and ARK Investment Management’s Cathie Wood seem to agree with Barton’s view that all spot Bitcoin ETF applications can be approved at the same time. Barton’s unique perspective comes not only from his experience of failing to gain first-mover advantage despite being the first to apply for an Ethereum ETF, but also because he believes that by successfully approving all Ethereum ETFs at once, the SEC has won a public litmus test without any legal challenges. Now, he said, they may achieve this goal with a spot Bitcoin ETF.

The 12 spot Bitcoin ETF applications come from Grayscale, 21Shares & Ark, BlackRock, Bitwise, VanEck, Wisdomtree, Invesco & Galaxy, Fidelity, Valkyrie, Global X, Hashdex and Franklin