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Portfolio > Alternative Investments > Cryptocurrencies

Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital Files for Bitcoin ETF

By Bernice Napach

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What You Need to Know

  • The FirstTrust SkyBridge Bitcoin ETF Trust seeks 100% exposure to Bitcoin, or as much as is “reasonably practicable to achieve.”
  • The number of firms filing with the SEC to trade a Bitcoin ETF continues to grow and accelerate.
  • The SEC has yet to approve a Bitcoin ETF but has rejected applications in the past.

Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital has joined the growing number of financial firms that have filed applications with the Securities and Exchange Commission to trade a Bitcoin ETF.

The  FirstTrust SkyBridge Bitcoin ETF Trust would seek as close to 100% exposure to Bitcoin “as is reasonably practicable to achieve,” according to the SEC filing.

FirstTrust Advisors would be the sponsor of the ETF trust responsible for managing its business affairs; providing certain clerical, bookkeeping and other administrative services; and supervising SkyBridge Capital, the ETF Trust’s subadvisor. SkyBridge Capital would be responsible for the day-to-day supervision and investment strategy and investment decisions of the ETF.

Earlier this year SkyBridge launched a Bitcoin trust, available only to accredited investors a minimum $50,000 investment.

Bitcoin ETFs Pending Before the SEC

Several Bitcoin ETF applications are already pending before the SEC, which has yet to approve any but has rejected some in the past. The pending applications are the VanEck Bitcoin Trust, for which the firm filed after the agency rejected two other Bitcoin ETFs; the Valkyrie Innovative Balance Sheet ETF, which despite its name would invest in Bitcoin as well as companies that directly or indirectly have exposure to the cryptocurrency; the WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust; and the NYDIG Bitcoin ETF from NYDIG Asset Management.

Bitwise, whose Bitcoin ETF was also rejected by the SEC, has filed an application with the SEC to launch a Crypto Innovators ETF that would invest primarily in companies whose revenues are derived primarily from the crypto sector.

Will More Bitcoin ETF Applications Move the SEC?

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are hoping that the proliferation of Bitcoin ETFs before the SEC, together with a new SEC chairman very familiar with blockchain, and the debut of three Bitcoin ETFs in Canada will move the agency to finally approve one or more Bitcoin ETF applications, but there is no indication yet that will be the case.

Gary Gensler, whom President Joe Biden has nominated to be the next SEC chairman but has yet to be confirmed, is the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is a professor at MIT, where he taught a course on blockchain and Bitcoin.

Meanwhile the SEC recently published a notice acknowledging the filing of the Cboe BZX Exchange’s proposed rule change that would enable it to list the VanEck Bitcoin ETF, which is pending before the agency. The SEC notice says a decision will be forthcoming within 45 or 90 days of publication of the notice in the Federal Register. Approval of the exchange’s application as well as the ETF’s application is required before the ETF could trade. In Canada three Bitcoin ETFs have launched this year.

Pictured: SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci. (Photo: Cole Burston/Bloomberg)

Bernice Napach

@Think_Napach

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