- The company and its partner, 21Shares, have introduced an SSA clause
- This is a measure to protect investors from market manipulation
- The agreement provides for the sharing of information with regulators, including the depositors themselves
In April of this year, Ark Invest and 21Shares reapplied to register a bitcoin-ETF. Today, June 29, the parties amended the documents to state “joint monitoring”. BlackRock also has a similar clause in its application.
Obviously, this move should be seen as an attempt to get ahead of the competition. Previously, we told you that Ark Invest considers their bid a priority.
The new item in the paper is called “Spot BTC SSA.”. This is a trilateral agreement between Ark, 21Shares and Cboe to share surveillance data.
The agreement provides for ongoing contact with regulators to prevent attempts to manipulate the market. There is a similar clause in BlackRock’s application, but already with the Nasdaq.
It is noteworthy that the SEC has previously repeatedly stated that the U.S. market is not ready for spot bitcoin-ETFs because there is no clear mechanism to protect investors from any manipulation.
The SSA agreement provides such an opportunity. However, Ark’s chances of beating BlackRock are still slim, since the fund is significantly larger.
In addition, Kathy Wood has previously attempted to register an exchange-traded product twice. And in both cases, she received a clear denial from the regulator.
In both cases, she received a clear denial from the regulator.