BlackRock plans to seed its spot Bitcoin ETF with $10 million; could launch shortly after approval

BlackRock, according to a new prospectus, seems to be seeding the spot Bitcoin ETF with $10 million.
The expected seeding set for January 3 is 100 times larger than the October seeding of $100,000.
BlackRock submitted an updated filing on December 22 following the SEC's meeting with all spot ETF applicants.

Aaryamann Shrivastava FXStreet

Spot Bitcoin ETF approval hype is increasing by the day with the marketing war already underway, but BlackRock is taking a different route. Over the past few days, one of the first applicants has been focusing on ensuring a smooth and large launch of its ETF over putting out advertisements, the hints of which can be seen in its most recent filing.

BlackRock makes a big move

BlackRock amended its spot Bitcoin ETF application per a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The move came after the regulatory body held a meeting with all the BTC ETF applicants as the expected approval date of January 10 comes closer.

While the likes of Bitwise and Hashdex have already begun attempting to appeal to consumers with the advertisements of their spot Bitcoin ETF products, BlackRock is moving forward with the seeding of IBIT (BlackRock's spot ETF ticker).

Per a new prospectus, the world's largest asset management company is expecting to seed its investment product with $10 million. This would mark a 100x jump from the initial $100,000 seeding from October. Furthermore, the $10 million seeding is set for January 3, 2024, which is a week before the expected approval.

BlackRock seeding prospectus

Seeding is the process in which the initial investment takes place that allows an ETF to launch and start trading. This seed capital is used to fund the creation of units that underlie the ETF in order to offer the shares to investors in the open market.

According to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, it could likely mean that BlackRock is planning to launch its investment product shortly after the approval. He also tweeted the subject to change the prospectus, stating,

Putting this here so everyone understands that this is not a final or approved or 'effective' document because i can see the hype building a bit too much. haha pic.twitter.com/EuuMpTKUZf
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) December 22, 2023

Author

Aaryamann Shrivastava

FXStreet

Aaryamann Shrivastava is a Cryptocurrency journalist and market analyst with over 1,000 articles under his name. Graduated with an Honours in Journalism, he has been part of the crypto industry for more than a year now.

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