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Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Investment Management

Portfolio > ETFs

Ark’s Cathie Wood Says SEC Hack Shouldn’t Delay Bitcoin ETF Decision

By Isabelle Lee & Katie Greifeld

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Ark Investment Management’s Cathie Wood said a Tuesday hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s social-media account on X likely won’t delay any decision on approving a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

“It is not going to delay the arrival of a spot-Bitcoin ETF but, again, you never know,” Wood said on Bloomberg’s ETF IQ on Wednesday.

The SEC’s X account was compromised by a fake post claiming that the agency had green lit plans for the products, fueling a brief surge in the price of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.

Minutes later, it was deleted and SEC Chair Gary Gensler posted via his own handle to say the post was unauthortized and there was no approval.

Wood spoke as a Wednesday deadline loomed for the SEC to rule on around a dozen applications for exchange-traded funds that directly hold Bitcoin.

The list includes BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity as well as Wood’s ARK Investment, which filed to list its own Bitcoin ETF in conjunction with 21Shares.

Wood said approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF will be a “price-moving event” long-term, even if there is initial selling on the news, because it will pave the way for institutions to increase their exposure to the token.

She also noted that if approved and if the rollout is smooth, spot Bticoin funds may make it easier for other types of digital-asset ETFs to be approved down the line.

“This is true scarcity evolving here,” she said, referring to Bitcoin’s capped supply of 21 million tokens.

Bidding War | Bitcoin ETF issuers lower fees to beat the competition in fresh filings (updated Jan. 10, 2024)

An approval would cap years of anticipation by industry watchers who view the launch of such a vehicle as a watershed moment for the digital-asset sector. The Jan. 10 deadline stems from ARK and 21Shares’ April application, which came first among this batch of filers.

“This is a massive shift in financial infrastructure,” Ophelia Snyder, co-founder of 21.co, said on Bloomberg’s ETF IQ on Wednesday. “This is really about providing access.”

Hype around a potential green light has been rampant on social media and Bitcoin surged past $45,000 in the days leading up to the decision.

Standard Chartered PLC suggested this week that Bitcoin could climb to $200,000 by the end of 2025 on ETF approvals, citing the example of gold exchange-traded products. The firm expects investor inflows of $50 billion to $100 billion into Bitcoin ETFs this year.

The SEC under Gensler and his Trump-era predecessor, Jay Clayton, has previously refused to allow such a product, citing concerns about investor protection and the potential for market manipulation.

However, speculation that the agency will have a change of heart has been mounting since August, when the SEC lost a key legal fight against crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments LLC.

The competition is stiff. Prospective Bitcoin ETF issuers have been slashing their costs in the run-up to Wednesday, with many in the market expecting the US regulator will make a decision on all the applicants at once.

 

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