The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected a proposal to list the ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF on the equities exchange Cboe BZX.
The ETF, which would have been managed by Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management and 21Shares, was intended to allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin’s price within the regulated stock market.
Cboe BZX had first applied to list the ETF in June 2021 and reapplied in May 2022, making new legal arguments in an attempt to get the fund approved.
The SEC rejected the ETF based on the fact that the surveillance sharing agreement between Cboe BZX Equities Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) does not apply to spot Bitcoin, as only Bitcoin futures contracts are traded at CME.
The SEC has so far not approved any spot Bitcoin ETF to be listed on an exchange. The Grayscale Investment Trust is currently seeking to convert its Bitcoin Trust into a spot Bitcoin ETF, and has sued the SEC for rejecting its proposal.
