Representatives from at least seven companies seeking to launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to spot Bitcoin (BTC) have met with officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to a report by Reuters, the discussions, based on public memos and insights from sources familiar with the matter, revealed that the SEC instructed at least two of the applicants to submit final changes to their proposals by the end of next week.
Notable participants in the meetings included representatives from BlackRock, Grayscale Investments, ARK Investments, and 21 Shares.
The SEC is scheduled to make a decision on the joint proposal put forward by ARK and 21 Shares by January 10.
It is widely anticipated that the SEC will approve several applications concurrently in the days leading up to the deadline.
Executives from ARK and 21 Shares that were involved in the discussions told Reuters that the SEC set a deadline of December 29 for the final updates to their filings.
The regulators emphasized that any applicant failing to meet this deadline will not be part of the initial wave of potential spot Bitcoin ETF approvals in early January.
Fox Business was the first to report the December 29 deadline.
Meeting memos indicate that representatives from the exchanges where the new products may be traded, such as Nasdaq and Cboe, as well as attorneys representing the applicants, were also present at the meetings.
Over the years, the SEC has rejected multiple applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs, citing concerns about market manipulation in the cryptocurrency market.
Currently, the agency has only approved cryptocurrency ETFs linked to Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) futures contracts traded on the Chicago
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