(Bloomberg) -- The race-to-the-bottom on fees among prospective spot Bitcoin ETF issuers picked up speed with at least four companies slashing their costs.
Invesco, Bitwise, Valkyrie and WisdomTree lowered fees in their spot Bitcoin ETF applications, according to updated filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Bitwise, which already had the lowest final fee of 24 basis points, dropped it even lower to just 20 basis points in Tuesday’s filing.
The cuts come ahead of the SEC’s highly anticipated Wednesday decision to take action on the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF application. Industry watchers anticipate that the US regulator will make a decision on all the applicants at once, adding extra urgency to the fee competition as issuers attempt to gain an edge in what could be a crowded race.
Read more: Why Crypto Is Counting on Spot Bitcoin ETFs: QuickTake
“It’s breathtaking how fast the fees got so low before the race even started,” said Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. “It’s like two years worth of fee wars have been condensed into a couple days.”
Invesco, like Bitwise, is offering an initial sweetener of zero fees for the first six months or until the fund reaches a certain asset threshold. After that, the fund will charge 39 basis points, versus 59 basis points previously. Valkyrie and and WisdomTree dropped their expenses to 0.49% and 0.30%, respectively, versus 0.80% and 0.50% in prior applications.