Pando Asset joins race for spot bitcoin ETF, as BlackRock meets with SEC again

Swiss asset manager Pando Asset became the latest firm to seek approval for a spot bitcoin ETF, filing an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Pending approval, the Pando Asset Spot Bitcoin BTC -0.63% Trust would trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange, with Coinbase as a custodian. For bitcoin pricing, the filing mentions use of CME's CF Bitcoin Reference Rate. 

Pando already offers exchange traded products that track prices of leading cryptocurrencies to European traders on the SIX Swiss Exchange, according to its website. 

Although the industry is eagerly anticipating the first spot crypto ETF, the SEC has yet to approve one. The regulator has so far moved to delay the other applications its received from asset management giants including BlackRock, Fidelity, 21Shares & Ark Invest, Bitwise, VanEck, Wisdomtree, Invesco, Valkyrie, Global X, Hashdex and Franklin Templeton.

On Tuesday, the SEC moved applications from Franklin Templeton and Hashdex into a public comment period, making some observers think that the agency could be accelerating the speed of the review process. 

BlackRock meeting

The SEC on Tuesday also had fresh meetings with representatives from Invesco and BlackRock, according to documents on the agency's website.

"During our 11/20 meeting with Trading & Markets staff, we understood the SEC has certain unresolved questions around the In-kind model relating to balance sheet impacts and risks to the Market Maker’s U.S. Registered Broker/Dealer entity (“MM-BD”, as distinct from the Market Maker’s unregistered entity (“MM-crypto”)) during the redemption flow," BlackRock said in an attached presentation.

It proposed an approach it said would resolve those concerns. 

"If the only issue here is the balance sheet of the US BD market maker, then BlackRock's proposal *should* satisfy the concern," Van Buren Capital's Scott Johnsson wrote on X. " The only difference with the prior in-kind model is creating a cash receivable from the off-shore MM to the on-shore MM and then transferring the cash directly so it sits on-shore after all is said and done."