BlackRock recently named Jane Street and JPMorgan as authorized participants for its Bitcoin spot ETF, according to an update to its application filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This comes as the market awaits SEC decisions on spot Bitcoin ETFs, with an approvals window between January 8 and 10, 2024.
BlackRock has designated authorized participants for its spot Bitcoin ETF
On Friday, BlackRock updated its Bitcoin spot ETF application via a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US regulator in charge of approving ETFs. This is likely to be the latest change for the world’s largest asset manager, with analysts predicting a series of general approvals between January 8 and 10 for various spot Bitcoin ETFs.
According to James Seyffart, analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, BlackRock has thus designated market operator Jane Street as well as JPMorgan as authorized participants for its spot Bitcoin ETF.
An authorized participant for an ETF is an approved financial entity that has the privilege of creating or redeeming ETF units directly with the ETF manager, in this case BlackRock. These authorized participants play a key role in the ETF’s operating mechanism by facilitating the creation and redemption of units, which helps to maintain liquidity and ensure that the ETF’s price remains aligned with the underlying value of its asset(s), in this case Bitcoin.
Obviously it’s looking more and more like this is a done deal. Would basically need the highest rungs of government to step in and stop these things from being approved
– James Seyffart (@JSeyff) December 29, 2023
According to James Seyffart, it’s hardly surprising that Jane Street has been selected as an authorized participant, but it’s even more surprising when it comes to JPMorgan. And for a simple reason: Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s CEO, is a long-standing anti-Bitcoin.
When he last spoke to the US Senate on the subject, he said that “the only real use cases [for crypto-currencies] are for criminals, drug dealers, money laundering and tax evasion. […] If I were the government, I’d shut them down. “
Ten days to go before the arrival of spot BTC ETFs?
At the time of writing, a series of spot Bitcoin ETFs could be approved in the next 10 days. While January 10, 2024 has long been considered a benchmark date, the SEC may give the green light as early as the 8th, 2 days before.
According to a Reuters dispatch published yesterday, a proportion of ETF applicants could expect to receive SEC approval next Tuesday or Wednesday, for a launch of their investment vehicle the following week.
While specialist analysts estimated a 90% chance that spot Bitcoin ETFs would be approved around January 10 a while ago, these probabilities have been consolidated by the numerous meetings between the SEC and certain applicants, in particular Grayscale and BlackRock, which have almost always been followed by an update of their respective applications.
Table dated December 28 summarizing ETF models and name
At this stage, we do not know which authorized participants have been chosen by the other applicants, except for Grayscale, which has chosen Jane Street alongside institutional brokerage Virtu Americas, and Valkyrie, which has also designated Jane Street as well as Cantor Fitzgerald.
