In the Bitcoin ETFs sector, six companies have decided to temporarily waive their sponsor fees. Among these developments, announced by Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart on January 9th, two stand out. WisdomTree and Valkyrie Investments declared they will temporarily suspend fees for their spot Bitcoin ETFs.
WisdomTree has reported it will zero its fees, which are currently at 0.30%, for six months or until the first $1 billion in assets. On the other hand, Valkyrie Investments decided to waive its fees, dropping from 0.49% to zero, for a three-month period.
The latest S-1 filings of both companies show that this waiver applies to sponsor fees collected for services performed under the trust agreement by the ETF trust fund and for services paid by other sponsors.
These moves align Valkyrie and WisdomTree with four other ETF applicants who have similarly waived their fees: Bitwise, Ark Invest, Invesco, and BlackRock (iShares). Nearly all of these firms plan to completely waive fees during this period. Only BlackRock intends to continue charging a fee of 0.20% after the waiver period. The other five spot Bitcoin ETF applicants have not waived any fees so far.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs Charges: James Seyffart
Decrease in Standard Fees Under ‘Fee Wars’
Recently, a competitive environment dubbed as ‘fee wars’ has led various companies to not only offer temporary waivers but also reduce their regular fees. Blackrock, Ark Invest, WisdomTree, and Invesco lowered or set their fees in their filings on January 8th. Grayscale, despite having a relatively high fee compared to others, reduced its fee from 2% to 1.5%.
Market observers are awaiting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10th, with trading expected to start in the following days. Although the approval is not yet certain, the SEC is known to be actively engaging with applicants and is expected to make a decision on Ark Invest‘s application tomorrow.
