Proposal for Bitcoin ETF withdrawn by Cboe, VanEck SolidX

The investment vehicle would only have been available to institutional investors

Cboe Global Markets’ BZX exchange has withdrawn a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission to list and trade shares of a Bitcoin investment vehicle.

A proposed rule change that would have allowed BZX to list and trade SolidX Bitcoin Shares issued by the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust was withdrawn by the exchange on Sept. 13, according to an SEC filing.

Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital asset strategy at VanEck Associates, tweeted in response to CoinDesk’s earlier report of the withdrawal that the firm continues “to work closely with regulators and market participants to get one step closer every day” to a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

“This is not bad news in my view, just a different process,” Mr. Gurbacs said later in response to questions from Bloomberg.

The institutionally oriented VanEck SolidX 144A Bitcoin product “is a good step toward a full publicly traded ETF,” he said.

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Earlier this month, VanEck and SolidX Management said in a statement that they had found a workaround for some large investors by using Rule 144A of the Securities Act of 1933.

The VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust 144A Shares are the first Bitcoin product for institutions that is cleared and features the same creation-and-redemption process common with traditional ETFs, according to the statement.

In August, the SEC had delayed a decision on approving the Bitcoin ETFs, extending until Oct. 18 the period to consider whether listing rules could change to allow the funds to start trading. Other applications for approval have also been delayed. The agency rejected an exchange’s request last year to list a Bitcoin ETF backed by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

Bitcoin dropped about 1% to $10,173 as of 7:30 a.m. in New York. The digital token has almost tripled this year, after tumbling 74% in 2018 and surging 1,400% in 2017.

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