Bitwise Dogecoin, Aptos ETF Filing Updates Suggest Path to Approvals: Analyst

Bitwise Asset Management’s revised filings for spot Dogecoin and Aptos exchange-traded funds suggest growing momentum behind crypto ETF approvals, according to Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas.

Speaking to Decrypt on Thursday, Balchunas said the updated prospectuses for separate spot Dogecoin and Aptos ETFs from Bitwise indicate warmer relations between fund issuers and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with more consistent engagement than seen ahead of the spot Bitcoin ETF approval in January last year.

“There’s been so much engagement,” Balchunas said. “It’s a completely new attitude from the SEC. Everything we’re hearing is even more optimistic than what we heard during the Bitcoin saga, and a lot of it seems to be like, ‘how can we work together,’ instead of like keeping the issuers stressed out.”

In an X post earlier in the day, Balchunas wrote that the interaction “tracks with other spot approvals,” Balchunas wrote earlier in the day in an X post.

The revised S-1 registration statements are among the latest developments in a flurry of activity surrounding altcoin-focused ETFs that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently weighing.

On Wednesday, Invesco applied for a Solana-focused fund, while the Cboe filed for a rule change that would enable a listing for a product based on the price of the Pudgy Penguins token.

Issuers have submitted filings for more than three dozen spot altcoin ETFs over the past year as demand for digital-asset investment products has surged after the success of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum funds and the entrance of the crypto-favoring Trump administration.

Balchunas noted that the amended Dogecoin and Aptos applications would allow in-kind creations and redemptions, a feature that multiple issuers have sought, but which was missing from the earlier versions.

“You’re not adding in kind to the Doge ETF if they didn’t say it was probably kosher,” Balchunas said. “And if it’s kosher for the Doge ETF, it’s going to be kosher for Bitcoin, which is a much bigger market. “It’s got to be close to 100% that we’ll see in kind creations for all of [the funds].”

In-kind redemptions and creations enable the direct exchange of the underlying assets of the ETF (Bitcoin or Ethereum) for ETF shares, bypassing the need for cash.

It eliminates the need for participants to sell the underlying crypto to create shares, reducing the bid-ask spread and avoiding additional broker commissions.

Balchunas expects Dogecoin, Aptos, and other altcoin funds to receive approval in the next two to four months, with the SEC grouping decisions by asset on different days.

“I don’t think they approve Solana, XRP, and all of them at once,” he said. “I would assume, just for the sake of not overwhelming the marketplace and market makers, they would do one at a time. They would stagger them.”

Last week, he forecasted a better than 95% probability that the SEC would approve Solana, XRP, and Litecoin ETFs, as well as a 90% chance that Dogecoin and several other altcoin funds would receive their approvals.

Bitwise has applications for funds tracing XRP, Solana, and Near, which are currently pending before the SEC.

Its spot Bitcoin fund has netted more than $2.1 billion in investments since receiving the regulator’s green light on January 10, 2024, along with nine other funds, according to U.K. asset manager Farside Investors.

Together, those U.S.-based funds now manage about $130 billion in assets, marking one of the most successful ETF launches in history.

Bitwise’s spot Ethereum fund has a respectable $351 million in net inflows.

Dogecoin was recently trading at approximately $ 0.16, down 3% over the past 24 hours.  The popular meme coin, the ninth-largest by market capitalization, has fallen 30% over the past month, part of an extended slump, according to CoinGecko data.

APT, the token of the Layer-1 Aptos blockchain, was recently trading slightly below $5, up 1.7% from Wednesday. It has declined by more than 9% over the past 30 days.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair