ARK Investment Management Files for a Bitcoin ETF

Currently, eight Bitcoin ETF proposals sit before the SEC. The regulator has delayed decision-making on multiple applications in the last few weeks.

According to the SEC filing, the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF will track the performance of Bitcoin using the S&P Bitcoin Index.

Like all Bitcoin ETFs currently under review, the trust will be physically backed, meaning it will provide investors direct exposure to Bitcoin without the risks of holding and exchanging bitcoin directly.

The trust will do this by holding Bitcoins in cold storage, using Coinbase Custody Trust Company as its custodian. The value of the trust and its shares will be calculated daily based on the index.

The S&P Bitcoin Index measures the performance of Bitcoin using data from S&P’s partner firm, Lukka.

The index uses Lukka Prime’s “Fair Market Value Pricing” to render Bitcoins price into points, rather than dollars. This proprietary methodology is designed specifically to determine the fair value pricing of liquid crypto assets.

Multiple exchanges are sourced based on qualitative and quantitative metrics. The exchanges sourced currently are Binance, Bitflyer, Bittrex, Bitstamp, Coinbase Pro, Gemini, HitBTC, Huobi, Kraken, KuCoin, and Poloniex.

The index is market-capitalization weighted, which, according to an S&P FAQ, “corresponds to coin supply multiplied by coin price.”

The trust will be listed under the ticker symbol “ARKB.”

ARK already has substantial crypto holdings through two other ETFs, the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK B) and the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW B-). The former includes crypto exchange Coinbase in its top fifteen holdings, while the latter is the only ETF to hold the massive Grayscale Bitcoin Trust in its top fifteen constituents.

21Shares is a Swiss company specializing in crypto and Bitcoin ETPs, including the world’s first physically backed Bitcoin ETP.

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