Bitwise has submitted Amendment No. 2 to its Form S-1 Registration Statement under the Securities Act of 1933 to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is its latest step following the Bitcoin ETF application and re-application it has made earlier.
In financial terms, ‘Amendment No. 2’ refers to the second change or update made to a document submitted to regulatory authorities.
The Form S-1 Registration Statement is a document that companies file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when they intend to go public with a product and offer their securities (such as stocks) to the public for the first time.
Bitwise first filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF in October 2021. The application was rejected by the SEC, and Bitwise refiled its proposal in June 2023. The SEC has not yet approved a spot Bitcoin ETF, but there are indications that the regulatory environment may be changing, with some analysts predicting a possible approval in January 2024.
Cyptocurrency ETFs are investment vehicles that allow investors to gain exposure to the price movements of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, without directly owning the digital assets.
They track the price performance of one or more cryptocurrencies by investing in a portfolio linked to their instruments. Like other ETFs, crypto ETFs trade on regular stock exchanges, and investors can hold them in their standard brokerage accounts.
This makes it possible to gain exposure to cryptocurrency prices without having to do business on a crypto exchange or deal with the costs and complexities of directly owning digital assets.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved other ETFs that use futures contracts to track cryptocurrency prices. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, the first and largest US cryptocurrency ETF, started trading in October 2021.
The SEC has not yet approved ETFs that directly hold cryptocurrencies, called spot crypto ETFs, but they are available in other countries.
In a spot crypto ETF, the fund can issue and redeem shares, offering retail and other investors more liquidity in the crypto market and a chance to gain exposure to these assets.
