- BlackRock filed a Form 8-A for its iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, a key step that signals the fund could begin trading on Nasdaq as soon as next week.
- The ETF, ticker BITA, will generate income by selling call options on shares of BlackRock’s $49 billion IBIT spot bitcoin fund, capping upside in exchange for option premiums.
- With a planned 0.65% fee that undercuts rival covered-call bitcoin funds, the ETF would deepen BlackRock’s push to turn bitcoin into an income-oriented product for mainstream investors while racing Goldman Sachs to market.
BlackRock took another step toward introducing its bitcoin income exchange-traded fund on Nasdaq, filing a share registration document that often signals an imminent debut.
The world's largest asset manager filed the Form 8-A for the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF on Thursday, usually one of the last procedural moves before an ETF goes live.
The filing "typically means launch in one week," Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, wrote on X, adding that he would bet the fund, ticker BITA, starts trading on June 18.
Balchunas said a day earlier that he expected the fund to debut "very soon" and noted BlackRock was racing to beat a competing Goldman Sachs product to market. Goldman's fund is due to go live around July 1.
BlackRock's fund will earn income by selling call options on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the largest spot bitcoin ETF, with $49 billion in net assets. Each month, it will write options on a portion of its holdings and collect the premium as income.
