Companies disclose expected fees for spot bitcoin ETFs ahead of SEC decision

A raft of investment managers disclosed the fees they plan to charge for their proposed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF), in another step toward approval this week by the U.S. securities regulator.

BlackRock, VanEck, Ark Investments/21Shares and Bitwise, among others, said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that they expect to significantly undercut the average market rate for U.S. ETFs.

Their rates were well below the average rate that analysts had anticipated and that even some issuers had indicated would be the range.

A spot crypto ETF would track the market price of the underlying crypto asset, giving investors exposure to the token without having to buy the currency. Euphoria around an approval has helped bitcoin, the world's largest and best-known digital asset, rally in recent months.

The SEC, which has previously denied all spot bitcoin ETF applications citing potential for fraud, is expected to announce its decision as early as this week.

Here are the fees disclosed by the companies:

Company Trust/ETF Fees Notes

name disclosed

BlackRock 0.30% Co says fees will

iShares be 0.20% for the

Bitcoin first $5 bln in

Trust assets for 12

months

Grayscale 1.5%

Investments Grayscale

Bitcoin

Trust

Fidelity 0.39%

Wise

Origin

Bitcoin

Trust

Ark Invest and 0.25% Will waive all fees

21Shares ARK for six months or

21Shares first $1 bln in

Bitcoin assets

ETF

VanEck 0.25%

VanEck

Bitcoin

Trust

WisdomTree 0.50%

WisdomTre

e Bitcoin

Trust

Valkyrie Digital 0.80% Co says it may

Assets Valkyrie temporarily waive

Bitcoin all or a portion of

Fund the fee "at its

discretion for

stated periods of

time" but that it

doesn't intend to

do that "presently"

Invesco and 0.59% Will waive on first

Galaxy Digital Invesco $5 bln in assets

Galaxy for six months

Bitcoin

ETF

Franklin 0.29%

Templeton Franklin

Templeton

Digital

Holdings

Trust

Bitwise Asset 0.24%

Management Bitwise

Bitcoin

ETF

Hashdex 0.94%* Fees on current

Hashdex product; Co has

Bitcoin filed to convert

Futures bitcoin futures ETF

ETF into a spot bitcoin

ETF

Source: Regulatory filings with the U.S. SEC

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru, Suzanne McGee in New York and Hannah Lang in Washington; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)