Ark Invest Files for a Bitcoin ETF

Ark Invest, the investment company founded by Cathie Wood, filed for approval to offer a Bitcoin ETF yesterday. 21Shares, an investment firm with experience launching related products in Europe, will help Ark to launch the product. Ark Invest is the latest of several funds showing interest in launching a Bitcoin ETF this year.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Jumps on the Bitcoin ETF Bandwagon

Ark Invest, the famous asset management firm, filed for approval to launch a Bitcoin ETF yesterday. The firm, founded and managed by Cathie Wood, will partner with 21Shares, a firm with experience in this field. The proposed instrument will be called ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF. It will track the performance and price of Bitcoin providing exposure for regulated markets.

While the price of Bitcoin has stagnated over the last month, tech and crypto-oriented funds expect demand to pick up again. Cathie Wood is a big bitcoin proponent and much of Ark’s holdings are based in cryptocurrency companies like Coinbase and also in bitcoin itself.

Wood predicted the price of Bitcoin could reach $500,000 due to its inherent properties, while also stating this might take some time due to the emotional character of the market. In any case, she is very positive about bitcoin’s prospects for the future.

The Race Is On

Ark Invest is the latest of several companies that have filed proposals for a Bitcoin ETF just in the last year. Propelled and inspired to chase an ETF offering by the rise of the bull market were companies like Galaxy Digital, VanEck, Fidelity, SkyBridge Capital, NYDIG, WisdomTree Investments, and BitWise. However, the SEC has not approved any of these proposals and some are already being delayed.

Gary Gensler, the new Chairman of the SEC, made clear that the cryptocurrency sector needed more regulation. About cryptocurrencies, he previously stated:

This is a quite volatile, one might say highly volatile, asset class, and the investing public would benefit from more investor protection on the crypto exchanges

In light of this, experts think the possibility of having a Bitcoin ETF this year is very low. All of the problems the SEC has called out on Bitcoin are still there. Price volatility and market manipulation claims are still present. But asset managers are still trying to grasp the opportunity to be the first to offer this kind of product in America. And now Ark Invest has joined the race.