Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has amended its filing for a spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) to include a surveillance-sharing agreement, similar to that of BlackRock (BLK).
The agreement would be between the Cboe BZX Exchange, on which the ETF would be listed, and a U.S.-based spot BTC trading platform, according to ARK’s amended 19b-4 filing.
Surveillance-sharing agreements involve the sharing of information about market trading activity, clearing activity and customer identification to protect against the possibility of market manipulation.
The inclusion of the agreement in BlackRock’s application was seen as a potential breakthrough for the listing of a spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S., dozens of applications for which the SEC has rejected.
ARK’s application may now be in pole position to be approved first as as it was filed earlier than BlackRock’s, noted Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
