After a brief withdrawal yesterday, the IBTC ticker of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF is back on the website of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). In addition, the latter has provided a few comments on the ETF’s presence in its list.
BlackRock’s IBTC ETF reappears on the DTCC website
Yesterday, we announced that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBTC) had been listed on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) website, only to learn later in the day that it had been removed.
In fact, the DTCC site was temporarily down, its servers unable to cope with the influx of visitors.
However, as it turned out, the withdrawal was short-lived, as the future investment vehicle was reinstated in the list of ETFs processed by the clearing company:
It’s baaaaack… $IBTC https://t.co/oquNDHuOBq
– Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 24, 2023
In reality, it seems that IBTC had been listed by DTCC since August, as she reported to Reuters. Nevertheless, she also clarified that this was “standard practice […] in preparation for the launch of a new ETF”, and in no way presaged whether or not it would be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):
“Appearance on the list does not indicate the outcome of any regulatory or other ongoing approval process. “
So we may have to wait a little longer, as BlackRock and the SEC have not provided Reuters with any clarification. Nevertheless, the quid pro quo doesn’t seem to have affected prices yet, with BTC still currently valued at $34,000 each.
What’s more, interest in Bitcoin Spot ETFs (BTC) is at an all-time high, at least over the last 12 months. And with good reason, the Google Trends score for the query “etf bitcoin” is at its peak, even though an initial wave of interest was triggered in June, when BlackRock first announced the idea:
Img – Google Trends score for the query “etf bitcoin “
