Donald Trump's social media platform, Truth Social, is moving forward with its plans to introduce a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The crypto asset management firm Yorkville America Digital, which is sponsoring the fund, filed an S-1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday, just two days after submitting a 19b-4 document. Typically, the S-1 document is filed first, followed by the listing exchange's 19b-4 filing. However, in this case, NYSE Arca, a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange, uploaded its documents before Truth Social filed its paperwork.
The reason for this unusual sequence of events is unclear, but the 19b-4 filing imposes a strict 240-day deadline on the SEC to either approve or reject the application. If approved, the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF would be listed, with its assets held in custody by Foris DAX Trust Company, which also provides custodial services for Crypto.com's assets. The fund would join a growing list of existing spot bitcoin ETFs, including those offered by prominent issuers such as BlackRock, Grayscale, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton. Notably, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has become one of the most successful ETF launches in US history, with nearly $70 billion in assets since its inception.