BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF could receive a significant update, per a Friday 19b-4 form filing from Nasdaq, which proposed a rule change to the exchange-traded fund that would enable in-kind BTC redemptions rather than just for cash.

Authorized participants, aka large institutional investors, would be able to redeem shares of the ETF for the underlying Bitcoin, rather than being forced to sell the Bitcoin via a market maker and deliver cash instead.

That's the current status quo, as established when IBIT and other Bitcoin ETFs were approved for trading by the SEC in January 2024, when Joe Biden was president and the regulator was run by crypto skeptic Gary Gensler.

SEC Headquarters Image: Andriy Blokhin/Shutterstock

SEC Rescinds Controversial Crypto Accounting Rule, Signals Regulatory Shift

On Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121, signaling a shift in its approach to regulating crypto-assets under Commissioner Hester Peirce, who now heads the agency's newly formed crypto task force. Introduced in March 2022, SAB 121 required companies to record a liability and a corresponding asset for crypto assets held on behalf of users.  Critics, including Peirce, argued that the guidance added unnecessary complexity and c...

NewsLaw and Order
3 min read
Sebastian Sinclair, Andrew Hayward

But things are changing under the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump, including the departure of Gensler and the creation of an SEC crypto task force that appears focused on creating clear regulation for the industry.

On Thursday, the SEC rescinded the controversial crypto accounting rule, called SAB 121, which discouraged banks from taking custody of crypto.

But this new rule would significantly streamline the process of redemptions, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, with fewer steps and fewer parties needed to complete a redemption. And without a requirement to redeem for cash, there could be less selling of Bitcoin overall when ETFs are hit with redemption requests.

In a post reply on X, Seyffart pointed to the SAB 121 repeal as a key part of the equation in the proposed ETF rule change.

"The side effects from abolishing SAB 121 are likely only just beginning," he suggested.

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