WisdomTree and Valkyrie add fee waivers to spot Bitcoin ETF applications

Two more asset managers have temporarily waived fees for their spot Bitcoin ETFs, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said on Jan. 9.

Seyffart indicated that WisdomTree will waive its fees for 6 months or the first $1 billion of assets, reducing fees from 0.30% to zero during the waiver period.

He also indicated that Valkyrie Investments will waive its fees for 3 months, reducing its fee from 0.49% to zero during the waiver period.

Each company’s latest S-1 filing indicates that its waiver applies to sponsor’s fees. That term describes fees that the sponsor — in this case Valkyrie or WisdomTree — collects from the ETF trust in compensation for services performed under the trust agreement and for other sponsor-paid services.

Those waivers also bring Valkyrie and WisdomTree in line with four other ETF applicants that have similarly waived fees: Bitwise, Ark Invest, Invesco, and BlackRock (iShares). All but one of those firms intends to waive fees entirely during the waiver period: only BlackRock maintains a 0.20% fee after the waiver. Five other spot Bitcoin ETF applicants have not announced any waiver.

‘Fee wars’ also slashed regular fees

In addition to introducing waivers, various firms reduced their regular fees in recent days through competitive filings in what was called a ‘fee war.’

Blackrock, Ark Invest, WisdomTree, and Invesco each reduced or specified their fees in filings on Jan. 8. Grayscale, though its fee is considerably higher than others, also reduced its fee to 1.5% from 2% on Jan. 8.

Many sources expect that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve a spot Bitcoin ETF tomorrow, Jan. 10, and that trading will begin in the coming days. Though approval is not certain, the SEC has engaged extensively with applicants and must decide on Ark Invest’s application tomorrow.

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