Fidelity Investments has filed a Bitcoin ETF proposal with the SEC. The asset management giant is the latest to join the queue of firms hoping to lay claim to the product.
Fidelity Joins BTC ETF Hopefuls
Fidelity’s subsidiary, FD Funds Management LLC, filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm’s Bitcoin ETF is called the “Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund.” The financial service company’s Fidelity Digital Assets unit will provide the custodial services to store Bitcoins backing the ETF.
With close to $5 trillion in assets under management, Fidelity Investments has built a suite of Bitcoin-related investment tools in custodial service, mining experiments, a cash lending program, and Fidelity Bitcoin Index PR, which fetches the real-time price of BTC in US dollars based on the trading on spot exchanges.
A spokesperson at the firm told The Wall Street Journal:
“An increasingly wide range of investors seeking access to bitcoin has underscored the need for a more diversified set of products offering exposure to digital assets.”
Bitcoin ETF applications have been continuing to pile up at the SEC since December 2020.
There are eight pending fillings with the regulator, including VanEck, NYDIG, CBOE, Wisdom Tree, Valkyrie, SkyBridge, First Advisors, and Simplify’s mixed ETF with stocks, and, of course, Fidelity’s application.
Nonetheless, the SEC has already rejected nine applications before the pandemic.