NYSE Files to List Shares of Valkyrie's Bitcoin ETF

Valkyrie Digital Assets is getting ready to launch its bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) filed a 19B-4 Form on behalf of the investment firm for its bitcoin ETF late on Friday. The form kicked off a 45-day review period when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acknowledges the filing. During that time, the SEC has to either approve or disapprove the application, or extend the review period.

“This is something that I’ve wanted to do for five years now,” said Steven McClurg, chief investment officer of Valkyrie Investments. “It wasn’t until recently that I believed that the SEC would probably approve a bitcoin ETF. So we started working on that in earnest probably in August.”

The SEC has rejected every bitcoin ETF application, but Gary Gensler, the SEC's new chairman, could change the regulator’s attitude to the novel investment product. Gensler is a former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman who taught crypto and blockchain courses at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In January, Dalia Blass, the director of the SEC’s division of investment management, left the agency. In 2018, Blass wrote a letter expressing concerns that the bitcoin market wasn't large enough or liquid enough to be ready for an exchange-traded product.

Several firms have applied for a bitcoin ETF in anticipation of the new administration. Earlier in March, Valkyrie proposed an ETF that would invest the majority of its capital into companies that have bitcoin on their balance sheets or are otherwise connected to crypto, and it filed a registration proposal called Valkyrie Bitcoin Trust in January.

Valkyrie is the at least the fourth firm to file a 19B-4, following VanEck, which filed one in March and had its 19B-4 acknowledged by the SEC on March 18. The SEC is also reviewing WisdomTree and Kryptoin’s ETF applications.