Fidelity Investments sign (Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock)
Asset management giant Fidelity has refiled paperwork for its Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust, a spot bitcoin ETF.
The move comes roughly two weeks afterBlackRock's (BLK) iShares unit submitted paperworkfor the iShares Bitcoin Trust, also a spot bitcoin ETF. Fidelity in 2021 had originally applied to launch the Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust, but that effort wasrejected by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)in 2022.
Since the BlackRock spot ETF filing earlier in June, a number of other fund companies have done similar, includingInvesco (IVZ)andWisdomTree, and a report earlier this week said a Fidelity filingwas imminent.
Similar to the BlackRock filing,today's paperwork from Fidelityincludes a "surveillance sharing agreement" with an unnamed U.S. spot-based bitcoin trading platform, the purpose of which is to help ease SEC concerns about market manipulation.
Fidelity also noted losses recently borne by crypto participants thanks to a number of insolvencies of both custodians and centralized exchanges, and said access to a vehicle such as a spot bitcoin ETF would have protected "countless investors."
So far, the SEC has not made a decision regarding any of the new applications. While many seem optimistic about the application from BlackRock – which has received a green light for all of its previous 575 ETF applications, except one – some remain skeptical.