Global X Withdraws from Bitcoin Spot ETF Race

Global X has withdrawn its application for a Bitcoin spot ETF, following a submission to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 30.

Global X withdraws from Bitcoin spot ETF race. Photo: U Today

Global X filed for a Bitcoin spot ETF back in August last year. Like other candidates, Global X faced multiple rejections from the SEC.

As of January 10, 2024, the SEC had officially approved trading for 11 Bitcoin spot ETF filings, after years of scrutiny over market manipulation concerns. However, Global X was absent from this list and appeared to have not supplemented its documentation like other organizations before.

James Seyffart, an ETF expert at Bloomberg, expressed little surprise at Global X's withdrawal. Seyffart mentioned in a post on X:

"This comes as no surprise as we knew they had exited the race as early as December. This is just the formal announcement."

According to Reuters, as of December 2023, Global X manages approximately $51 billion in assets across global ETFs. However, Global X is not the only entity to stumble in the Bitcoin spot ETF race. Pando Asset Management and 7RCC also await approval for their December 2023 submissions.

Despite the introduction of spot ETFs marking a milestone for the cryptocurrency sector, the market has been under pressure from conversions out of Grayscale's GBTC, leading to a significant drop in Bitcoin prices.

Meanwhile, the remaining 10 ETFs, despite experiencing inflows, have not been sufficient to offset the outflows from GBTC. It was only yesterday, the 12th trading day of spot ETFs, that the market witnessed positive inflows, with Fidelity's ETF inflows surpassing Grayscale's outflows. Bitcoin has shown signs of recovery and has been actively testing previous highs over the past 24 hours.

Currently, attention is turning towards the potential of Ethereum spot ETFs, with participation from major names like Fidelity and BlackRock.