Fidelity cuts proposed spot Bitcoin ETF fee to 0.25% amid industry fee competition

Fidelity discloses in a recent S-1 filing that is aims to lower the charge for its upcoming Bitcoin ETF to 0.25%.

The development marks a significant decrease from the previously set fee of 0.39% announced on Dec. 29. Additionally, Fidelity intends to waive this fee for market participants until the end of July, as stated in the latest filing.

U.S. companies vying to launch the initial spot Bitcoin ETFs are engaging in a competitive market by slashing fees ahead of anticipated approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Earlier this week, asset managers, including Bitwise, WisdomTree, Invesco, and Valkyrie, were noted for aggressively reducing fees, as indicated in their recent filings.

It is widely expected that spot Bitcoin ETFs will likely be approved by the US financial regulator in the imminent future, with trading widely believed to commence by Jan. 11.

Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck, another firm applying for a spot bitcoin ETF, told CNBC on Jan. 9 that he anticipates the trading of his company’s proposed fund to commence on Thursday.

In a separate development, the SEC reported a security breach in its X account on Jan. 9. A fraudulent tweet from the account, claiming the approval of spot Bitcoin ETF applications, led to a sudden drop in Bitcoin’s price, which fell to approximately $45,723 at the time of writing, after having surpassed $47,000 on Jan. 9.

BTC 24-hour price chart | Source: CoinMarketcapFollowing this incident, SEC lawyers, in a discussion with Fox Business, confirmed that the regulator would conduct an internal investigation for potential market manipulation.

Despite this security breach, James Seyffart, a research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, remains optimistic about the ETF decision timeline.

In a Jan. 9 post on X, Seyffart maintained expectations for potential approvals to proceed as planned, with trading possibly beginning on Thursday.