Asset management firm Hashdex recently held a meeting with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to address the regulator’s concerns about its application to allow the Hashdex Bitcoin futures-traded fund (ETF) to hold spot bitcoin, a source familiar with the matter told Cointelegraph.

According to the memo issued by the Division of Trading Markets, the meeting was held on October 13, in the presence of six officials from the SEC and representatives of Hashdex, NYSE Arca, Tidal Financial Group, and the law firm K&L Gates.

At the meeting, Hashdex presented its mechanism that allows Bitcoin (BTC) to be spot traded and held in an exchange traded fund (ETF) on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The Hashdex differs from other Bitcoin spot apps because it does not have a monitoring sharing agreement with the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Instead, Hashdex proposes to acquire spot bitcoin from physical exchanges within the CME market, making it entirely dependent on CME’s pricing of transactions, according to an SEC filing by NYSE Arca in late August.

A presentation shared with SEC officials during a meeting this month shows that the strategy is also based on the SEC’s Teucrium Order, which states that the bitcoin futures market is sufficiently developed to support financial products seeking exposure to bitcoin.

As a next step, the SEC may request more information before the first filing deadline on November 17, according to the person familiar with the matter.

Hashdex claims to have over $380 million in assets under management and 14 exchange-traded products (ETPs) across seven countries.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Hashdex’s Bitcoin Futures ETF in April 2022. The product has been listed on NYSE Arca since September last year. If the rule change is approved, the ETF will be able to hold spot Bitcoin as well.

Several major asset managers are racing to list the first bitcoin ETF in the US. BlackRock’s ETF proposal was recently listed on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), suggesting approval may be on the way, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.

“The current consensus view is that the SEC will approve all spot ETFs within three months,” the source said.

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