WisdomTree’s Next Bitcoin ETF Bid Filed

The issuer tweaked its application for a spot bitcoin product with more investor protections.

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WisdomTree resubmitted its application to form the first physically backed bitcoin ETF in the U.S., notably by specifying it would take on requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other specific investor protection measures.

The firm’s latest application to the SEC on Wednesday confirms that it still intends to list on Cboe Global Markets, but with the ticker BTCW.

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While not filed under the Investment Act of 1940, BTCW would follow several custody, audit and disclosure rules that other ETF applicants are required to follow in order to qualify for automatic effectiveness after 75 days under the 2019 ETF Rule.

The fund would also maintain a fidelity bond, and claims to use a valuation method that is “materially the same” as the method used to price bitcoin futures contracts on the CME.

BTCW also plans to be in full compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a set of financial and accounting rules passed by Congress in 2002 after the collapse of Enron.

However, key aspects of the fund’s prospectus were unchanged. WisdomTree still asserts that a reference bitcoin price aggregated from five major exchanges is enough to resist manipulation, and that a formal surveillance-sharing agreement isn’t needed.

The SEC has repeatedly denied that argument in recent physical bitcoin ETF applications, including in its denial of WisdomTree’s original application last week.

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