BlackRock Seeds Bitcoin ETF With $10M, Analyst Predicts January Approval

• BlackRock has submitted an amended Form S-1 with the SEC for its Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
• According to the filing, the company highlighted its plans to seed fund the ETF.
• The amended filings made it clear that authorized participants would not hold BTC.

In a recent update, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has submitted an amended Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for their Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), fueling rumors of a possible January launch.

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Bloomberg’s analyst James Seyffart noted that BlackRock plans to allocate a seed fund of $10 million for its spot Bitcoin ETF. For the uninitiated, when a company seeds an ETF, it means they are allocating an initial amount of capital to get it started.

BlackRock’s decision to seed its pending ETF is in tandem with a similar move by ETF and Mutual Fund Manager VanEck. In October, VanEck revealed its plans to seed its own Bitcoin ETF with 50,000 shares secured through BTC.

While the amended filing itself doesn’t guarantee an immediate green light from the SEC, it does signal BlackRock’s continued commitment to bringing a Bitcoin-backed ETF to market. Expressing concern that the hype surrounding the news could be premature, Seyffart warned that “seed movements do not mean launch.”

Nevertheless, the analyst doubled down on his initial prediction that approval could be granted in January. The analyst said, “Looking like BlackRock is *planning* to make moves on Jan 3rd … But maybe means BlackRock would be expecting a launch to happen shortly after?”

Providing additional information, another Bloomberg analyst, Eric Balchunas, stated that the amended filings made it clear that authorized participants would not hold BTC. They would only receive shares using cash and would receive only cash when redeeming their shares.