The massive asset management company Fidelity, along with BlackRock and VanEck, submitted updated forms to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday for their proposed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This was done in advance of an early January deadline for possible approval. The records revealed what, should the regulator ultimately grant the go-ahead, might turn into a race for the lowest charge.

Fidelity listed JP Morgan Securities and Jane Street Capital as authorized participants in their most recent update. It added that the sponsor fee for its suggested fund would be a mere 0.39%.

According to a post on X by Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Fidelity has the lowest charge thus far. “Fidelity is officially ready to party,” he said in a note.

While several companies have yet to disclose their pricing strategies, Invesco announced in an update on Friday that the sponsor fee for its planned fund will be 0.59%. Additionally, it intends to waive that for the first six months.

“It is my belief that BlackRock performs worse than Fidelity,” stated Nate Geraci, the president of the advice business The ETF Store. “I wonder whether these costs drive away any rivals prior to launch. It will be difficult to compete at 80 bps or lower.”

Modified registration applications
On the final working day of the year, more asset managers updated their applications as well; Valkyrie, Bitwise, WisdomTree, and Franklin Templeton submitted new files to the SEC.

On Friday, Valkyrie named Jane Street Capital and Cantor Fitzgerald, and BlackRock named Jane Street Capital and JP Morgan Securities as authorized participants. Authorized participants are registered broker-dealers that are utilized in the procedures of creation and redemption, which have been a major focus of current discussions with the SEC.

The SEC has not yet approved the spot bitcoin ETF that the cryptocurrency industry has been fighting for years.