- Fidelity is allegedly entering the Bitcoin ETF race
- Andrew Parish, co-founder of trading automation company Arch Public, claims that the company is close to filing or buying out Grayscale
- Such a move would send a strong signal that Bitcoin is very much alive
Asset giant Fidelity may be about to rival BlackRock for a Bitcoin ETF according to Andrew Parish, co-founder of trading automation company Arch Public. Parish cited unnamed sources as claiming that Fidelity will seek to either file its own Bitcoin ETF to rival BlackRock’s recent application or will look to buy out Grayscale, which is suing the SEC over the dismissal of its own ETF last year. With little to go on for now the claim has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but having seen BlackRock make its move and having already pushed the SEC to approve a Bitcoin ETF in 2021, the thought that Fidelity may make such a move is distinctly possible.
Battle of the Trillion-dollar Funds
Fidelity first got involved in the cryptocurrency space in 2019 when it opened up a Bitcoin custody service for institutional investors, an interest which has since spawned into Bitcoin and Ethereum trading funds. More pertinently, the company pushed for a Bitcoin ETF in a meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September last year, a request that has been staunchly denied ever since.
However, if Parish is to be believed then Fidelity is about to take matters into its own hands:
UPDATE: @DigitalAssets and @Fidelity is about to make a seismic move in crypto via both $BTC and $ETH.
Sources expect Fidelity to either make a bid for @Grayscale or quickly launch their own spot #bitcoin ETF. One or both are coming, soon.
**Blackrock and Fidelity will own…
— Andrew (@AP_Abacus) June 18, 2023
If Fidelity indeed wants to make a play for the first Bitcoin ETF then either of these approaches makes sense. Going solo would allow the company to tailor the application much more to its needs from the off but would require a lot more work compared to simply buying out Grayscale. Of course, the caveat with a Grayscale takeover is that Fidelity might have to be bound by the features already inherent in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust-ETF conversion, giving it less autonomy over its application.
Either way, Fidelity entering the Bitcoin ETF space alongside BlackRock would send a huge signal to the world that however global regulators act in the coming years Bitcoin is here to stay.
