VanEck Amends Bitcoin ETF Prospectus, Suggests Seeding Fund With BTC

After several spot Bitcoin ETF applicants amended their filings, global investment giant VanEck has followed suit and modified its application, but unlike BlackRock's iShares, which is planning to seed its fund with cash, VanEck Bitcoin Trust suggested it will seed with BTC.

There is still excitement surrounding spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the world's largest crypto asset by market capitalization trading in the green zone.

The hype, which started last week, propelled the price of Bitcoin to new highs and it broke records, particularly after BlackRock's iShares ETF was listed on the official website of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which some analysts believe could be a hint that the ETF is already seeding fund.

Finance lawyer Scott Johnson, in a social media post, pointed out some of the changes VanEck made to its spot Bitcoin ETF filing, particularly highlighting the term "seeding."

Johnson, who is also a general partner at Van Buren Capital, said VanEck's amended filing has a similar language to the amended prospectus of BlackRock's iShares, except that instead of using cash to seed the fund, VanEck will use Bitcoin.

"Similar language to the Blackrock amendment re: seeding. Perhaps not too surprising given both issuers are represented by the same lawyers at Clifford Chance. Except here, instead of seeding with cash like iShares, Vaneck suggests they'll seed with bitcoin," Johnson wrote on X. "Caution not to read too much into this. Still, it's an affirmative addition so either suggestive of actual intent or maybe just rather lazy lawyering."

Johnson admitted he is not familiar with the "mechanics" of seeding and said he found VanEck's language "not normal."

"I'm not familiar enough with the mechanic to know whether the cash from the seed investor is used by the issuer to buy the bitcoin. Not normally how an issuer obtains the underlying. And as far as I can see, the prospectus doesn't say," the finance lawyer noted.

Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said last week that the financial regulator was reviewing eight to 10 spot Bitcoin ETF applications.

BTC was trading in the green zone at $34,218.7 as of 4:06 a.m. ET on Monday, with a 24-hour trading volume up by 38.72%. It represented a 0.33% increase in the last 24 hours and an 11.3% gain over the past seven days.

Bitcoin's total circulating supply stands at 19,528,018 BTC, with its value up by 0.36% at a $668,374,598,242 market cap, according to data from CoinMarketCap.