Giang Bui, head of U.S. equities and ETPs at Nasdaq, said that the early rejection of BlackRock’s planned spot Bitcoin ETF should not affect its ultimate success, and these early rejections may not be a bad sign for applicants. , because once an exchange files a document [19-b4], the SEC has seven business days to reject it if it determines that it does not comply with the SEC’s form-related rules. Rejections at this stage are purely procedural and do not indicate the viability of the product.
After the initial rejection, Nasdaq and other exchanges submitted updates to various ETF applications and explicitly listed Coinbase as an oversight sharing agreement partner. Bui acknowledged this and said it was unusual to list partners in this way, but Nasdaq was trying to make its filing “as strong as possible,” which is why the partners were added late.
BlackRock filed for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on June 15. BlackRock files a Form S-1 to register its product, while Nasdaq is responsible for filing a Form 19-b4, which proposes the rule changes required to list the product.