The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission held separate meetings on December 21, 2023, with representatives behind three proposed spot bitcoin exchange-traded products, according to agency memoranda bearing that date. The documented discussions involved BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF and the VanEck Bitcoin Trust.
The meetings did not constitute approval. Each memorandum says only that the discussion concerned an exchange’s proposed rule change to list and trade shares of the relevant trust. Even so, the concentration of issuer, exchange and SEC personnel around multiple applications on one day showed that the process had advanced beyond the submission of largely static filings.
That mattered institutionally because a spot bitcoin product would hold bitcoin rather than obtain exposure through regulated futures. Approval would therefore require the SEC to resolve questions involving exchange rules, market surveillance, custody, creation and redemption mechanics, and the relationship between share prices and the underlying bitcoin market.
Three applications, two proposed exchanges
The iShares memorandum identifies staff from the SEC’s Divisions of Trading and Markets and Corporation Finance. Participants outside the agency included six BlackRock representatives, two lawyers from Clifford Chance and five representatives of Nasdaq. The discussion concerned Nasdaq’s proposal to list the iShares Bitcoin Trust under Nasdaq Rule 5711(d).
A second memorandum records a meeting involving ARK 21Shares. SEC staff met with four 21Shares representatives, two Dechert lawyers and two Cboe BZX representatives. That discussion concerned Cboe BZX’s proposal to list the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF under BZX Rule 14.11(e)(4).
The third record concerns the VanEck Bitcoin Trust. Five VanEck representatives, a Clifford Chance lawyer and two Cboe BZX representatives joined SEC staff to discuss another proposed listing under BZX Rule 14.11(e)(4).
The memoranda establish the participants, date and regulatory files. They do not disclose what positions the parties took, whether disagreements remained or how SEC commissioners would ultimately vote. Claims about the private substance of the meetings therefore require separate attribution.
The filing race entered a narrower phase
Reuters reported on December 22, 2023, citing the public memoranda and two unnamed participants, that SEC officials had met on December 21 with representatives of at least seven prospective issuers. According to that report, at least two firms were told to submit final changes by December 29 if they wanted to remain eligible for an initial group of possible approvals.
Reuters also reported that BlackRock and ARK had revised their proposals earlier that week to accommodate cash redemptions requested by regulators. Under a cash model, an authorized participant would deliver or receive cash rather than bitcoin when creating or redeeming fund shares. The trust or its designated counterparty would execute the corresponding bitcoin transaction.
That structure could limit which regulated intermediaries needed to handle bitcoin directly, but it also shifted execution responsibilities and potential trading friction into the product. On December 21, neither the meeting memoranda nor the existence of amended filings established that the SEC had accepted those arrangements.
The immediate deadline in view was January 10, 2024, when the SEC was due to act on the ARK 21Shares proposal. Expectations that several applications might be handled together were reported expectations, not an announced Commission decision.
What was knowable on December 21
The verified development was a coordinated day of application-specific regulatory engagement involving major asset managers and two proposed listing exchanges. It demonstrated procedural progress and a narrowing focus on operational details. It did not authorize trading, guarantee approval or establish demand for any eventual product.
No bitcoin price or percentage move is attributed to the meetings here. Cryptocurrency trades continuously across venues, and a defensible event-day market claim would require a named trading pair, venue or index, UTC measurement window and controls for other news affecting price.
Later context
On January 10, 2024, the SEC approved rule changes permitting multiple spot bitcoin exchange-traded products to list and trade. That later decision confirms the importance of the December process but must not be projected backward: as of December 21, 2023, the applications remained pending and approval was uncertain.
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