SEC Orders First Trust-SkyBridge to Declare Its Bitcoin ETF Application Abandoned

• First Trust and SkyBridge initially filed for a bitcoin ETF in March 2021.
• The application was unsuccessful, and the two firms did not re-apply for the ETF.

First Trust Advisors and SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund run by Trump-era White House Communications Director and digital assets investor Anthony Scaramucci, have been ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to mark their bitcoin (BTC) ETF application as abandoned.

In a notice published on Wednesday, the SEC said that the registration statement must be declared abandoned because the First Trust SkyBridge Bitcoin ETF failed to respond to prior communications from the Commission.

First Trust and SkyBridge initially filed for a bitcoin ETF in March 2021. The application, along with many other unsuccessful applications, was rejected in January 2022.

However, the two firms didn’t re-apply post-BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF application, which, after some revision, became one of the first bitcoin ETFs to be approved by the SEC.

In a post on X, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said he wasn't sure why First Trust and SkyBridge didn’t re-file post-BlackRock’s successful application. Bitcoin continues to trade near $72,000, according to CoinDesk Indicies data, while the broader CoinDesk 20 Index is flat at 2,740.