Issuers of potential spot Bitcoin ETFs that are awaiting SEC approval have filed amendments to their S-1 forms, which include new competitive fee rates — some as low as 0.24%.
The anticipation for the decision from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continues as multiple applicants filed their final S-1 form amendments on Jan. 8.
Valkyrie was the first company to file its final S-1 amendment, followed by WisdomTree, BlackRock, VanEck, Invesco and Galaxy, Grayscale, and ARK Invest and 21Shares.
Among the amendments, many of the applicants have also included lower fees, raising the bar of competitiveness between the various ETF offerings.
The lowest sponsor fee for the currently filed ETFs is from Bitwise, with no fee for the first six months and the first $1 billion in assets, followed by a 0.24% fee. This is followed by ARK Invest and 21Shares also listing no fee for the first six months or until $1 billion in assets, after which they will enforce a fee of 0.25%.
Bloomberg market analyst Eric Balchunas called the drop in ARK and 21Share’s fees from 0.80% to 0.25% “breathtaking.” Balchunas said, “The fee wars are intense, but that’s another level.”
VanEck listed a 0.25% fee, Franklin a 0.29% fee and Fidelity a 0.39% fee.
Global asset manager BlackRock set its fee for the iShare ETF at 0.20% for the first 12 months or until the first $5 billion, then hiked it up to 0.30% as the ongoing fee.
On the higher end of the fees, Wisdomtree comes in at 0.5%, Galaxy Invesco offered the first six months with no fee, followed by a 0.59% fee, Valkyrie has a 0.80% fee, and Hashdex has a sponsor fee of 0.90%.
Grayscale dropped its fee from 2% to its newly listed fee of 1.5%, which currently comes in as the most expensive of the pack.
Research and market analyst James Seyffart posted on X (formerly Twitter) to be mindful that these are not finalized and said he wouldn’t be surprised by even more fee drops.
Amid all the revisions to spot Bitcoin ETFs, Balchunas said it would be “interesting” to see if this influences cryptocurrency exchanges to respond with their own fee cuts “before it’s too late.”
Balchunas also posted a reminder that the temporary fee waivers historically haven’t “moved the needle much” and that advisors tend to focus on the regular fees because they are long-term investors.
However, he did say it could possibly matter in this case, given that the ETFs all do the same thing.
As the final amendments come in, the next stage in the decision-making process is anticipated to be a vote by SEC commissioners. Markets have been forecasting the debut of the ETF on or around Jan. 11.
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