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In the midst of intensifying competition among the first issuers of Bitcoin spot ETFs, Ark Investment, founded and led by "Wood Sister" Cathie Wood, is investing heavily to purchase its own recently launched Bitcoin spot ETF—ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB.US). They aim to rapidly expand the ETF's size through "self-purchase" and ultimately attract numerous institutional investors.
The latest data compiled by institutions shows that on Tuesday, Ark Investment's ETF product, ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (Ticker: ARKW), sold its position worth $16 million in the Bitcoin futures ETF—ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (Ticker: BITO.US). This move paved the way for the purchase of 365,427 shares of ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (Ticker: ARKB) issued by Ark Investment. After buying this ETF, ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF currently represents approximately 1% of ARKW's total holdings.
According to some analysts, the continuous purchase bids from sister funds may help ARKB gain an advantage in the highly competitive environment of several newly issued Bitcoin spot ETFs. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) broke precedent last week by allowing 10 such new ETFs to be listed simultaneously to prevent any one ETF from gaining a first-mover advantage.
Considering that all funds hold the same underlying Bitcoin spot assets, this has turned into a highly competitive race. Bloomberg Intelligence, a market research firm, stated that injecting company funds into ETFs is an essential way to rapidly expand scale. This is a critical benchmark for large financial advisors, investment platforms, and many institutional investors, with many institutions setting minimum product thresholds for ETF products. The high threshold often set by large institutional investors acts as an important reference standard.
James Seyffart, an ETF analyst from Bloomberg Intelligence, commented: "Cathie Wood's purchase of ARKB along with other ETFs issued by her company feels a bit like cheating in terms of expanding asset scale and trading volume. However, she is not the only issuer who can do this, and it is not the only cheat code available. We may see other issuers similarly incorporate their ETF products into model portfolios or adopt the standard practice of investing with self-owned assets." |
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