Cathie Wood predicts SEC will approve multiple bitcoin ETFs at once

The ARK Investment Management CEO backed away from her previous view that her firm's spot-bitcoin ETF would be the first to be approved.

Cathie Wood said that the Securities and Exchange Commission may approve multiple spot-bitcoin ETFs at the same time, reversing an earlier view that her firm would be first in line to get potential approval for the long-awaited product.

“I think the SEC, if it’s going to approve a bitcoin ETF, will approve more than one at once,” Wood, CEO and CIO at ARK Investment Management, told Bloomberg TV Monday.

In June, ARK said it was first in line to get potential approval for a spot-bitcoin exchange-traded fund as a result of the early timing of the investment firm’s application with the SEC.

Now Wood has changed her tune, suggesting that the regulator may green-light a number of applications all at once. That could help even the playing field for the products which could potentially usher in more than $50 billion of demand.

To be sure, a spot-bitcoin ETF does not currently exist in the U.S. and regulators have, in the past, been loath to approve one.

Firms including BlackRock Inc., Fidelity, WisdomTree, VanEck and Invesco all applied to launch funds that would essentially be the same as the product from ARK. Because of the similarities of the potential funds, the success of each will come down to the issuer’s marketing skills, Wood said.

“I think Cathie is seeing and hearing the same things we are,” said James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

He added that the “path of least resistance” for the securities regulator would be to approve all or at least multiple spot-bitcoin funds at the same time, particularly if Grayscale Investments wins its lawsuit against the SEC. Grayscale sued the SEC after the agency rejected a plan to convert the $18 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF.