Nasdaq Clearing Firm Listed BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF – C3.ai Stock and Elon Musk Crypto Analysis

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF Listed on DTCC

Investment firm BlackRock’s proposed iShares spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been listed on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), indicating potential approval by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Eric Balchunas, an analyst for Bloomberg ETF, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Oct. 23 that the DTCC listing was “all part of the process” of bringing a crypto ETF to market. The iShares spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF has a ticker symbol of IBTC for a possible listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, which applied to list and trade shares of the investment vehicle in June.

“This is [the] first spot ETF listed on DTCC, none of the others on there (yet),” said Balchunas. “Def notable BlackRock is leading charge on these logistics (seeding, ticker, dtcc) that tend to happen just prior to launch. Hard not to view this as them getting signal that approval is certain/imminent.”

Balchunas speculates that BlackRock may have already received the green light for listing the ETF from the SEC or was “prepping everything assuming so.” According to the date of BlackRock’s application, the SEC has until Jan. 10, 2024, to reach a final decision on whether to approve or deny the ETF.

If the SEC approves BlackRock’s application, it could potentially pave the way for a range of spot crypto ETFs that are currently under review, including ARK Investment, Fidelity and Valkyrie. Despite the SEC having not yet approved a spot Bitcoin or Ether (ETH) application for listing on a U.S. exchange, it did begin allowing investment vehicles related to Bitcoin futures in October 2021.

The BTCC listing followed the U.S. appellate court issuing a mandate to make the SEC review a spot BTC ETF application from Grayscale Investments. Grayscale submitted a registration statement to the SEC to list shares of its Bitcoin trust on the New York Stock Exchange Arca, under the ticker symbol GBTC, on Elon Musk’s crypto venture, Elongate Crypto, on Oct. 19.