With the crypto industry anticipating the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) as early as today, BlackRock (BLK) and ARK 21Shares both cut the fees for their proposed ETFs, joining other contenders who announced reductions yesterday.

BlackRock said it will charge 25 basis points on net asset value in a new S-1 filing on Wednesday, having previously revealed a fee of 30 basis points on Monday. The asset-management giant is offering a promotional rate of 12 basis points on the first $5 billion during the first 12 months after listing. A basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point.

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ARK 21Shares reduced the fee by 4 basis points to 0.21%, having previously said it would charge 0.25%. The firms are waiving the fee entirely for the first six months or the first $1 billion in assets, whichever comes first.

Wednesday's reductions follow rivals including Bitwise and Valkyrie, which announced reduced fees yesterday after a first set of postings on Monday. Even with today's reductions, Bitwise's fee remains the lowest. The crypto native fund manager lowered its initial 0.24% charge to 0.20% in Tuesday's round. Valkyrie is now charging 0.49%, WisdomTree 0.3% and Fidelity 0.25%. Invesco and Galaxy cut the fee they plan to charge to 0.39%.

The SEC is expected to approve multiple ETFs at the same time, meaning the different providers will tussle for market share with fee structure being one of the main weapons.

UPDATE (Jan. 10, 12:33 UTC): Adds Tuesday's cuts by rivals.

BlackRock Ark 21shares Bitcoin ETF Fees

Jamie Crawley

Jamie joined CoinDesk as a news reporter in February 2021 after writing widely about crypto and blockchain for two years in other roles. Away from crypto, Jamie runs a lot and loves all things sport. He holds small amounts of BTC, ETH, ADA and LTC.