BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Names JP Morgan, Jane Street as Authorized Participants

The amendment is one of the last steps in the application process, experts say.

2 min read

Dec 29, 2023

Wall Street titan BlackRock today amended its much talked about Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) filing and named banking giant JP Morgan Securities and trading firm Jane Street as authorized participants.

In the world of ETFs, an authorized participant is the organization that works with the issuer of the fund to create and redeem shares of a fund so that an investor can cash out.

This, according to experts, is likely the last step of the application process for the long-awaited product after various reviews and amendments.

BlackRock also last week amended its filing by saying its fund would allow for cash-only redemptions.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had set a deadline of today for applicants to make amendments to their filings.

At the time of writing, fund manager Valkyrie had also named quantitative trading firm Jane Street as one of its authorized participants. The other was Cantor Fitzgerald.

BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, in June applied to the SEC to release a spot Bitcoin ETF, leading the price of the biggest cryptocurrency to shoot up. Since then, its BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has called Bitcoin an “international asset” that “digitizes gold.”

Analysts now think that interest from the prestigious fund manager—and many other high-profile Wall Street firms—means that the SEC will finally approve the long-awaited investment vehicle after denying applications for 10 years.

Such a product would allow people to buy shares that track the price of Bitcoin—an asset which can be alien to buy and store for traditional investors.

Industry observers noted the irony of today’s filing naming JP Morgan as its authorized participant: the CEO of the bank Jamie Dimon has repeatedly blasted Bitcoin.

Earlier this month, billionaire banker Dimon told lawmakers: “I’ve always been opposed to crypto, Bitcoin, etcetera,” adding that if he were the government in charge, he’d “close it down.”

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