Cboe files with the SEC to list Fidelity's bitcoin ETF as the number of firms seeking approval grows

• The Cboe has applied with the SEC to list Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF.
• An exchange partner is necessary to file a Form 19b-4. Only then will the SEC review the application.
• Thus far, the agency has not approved any cryptocurrency ETFs in the US.

The Cboe Global Markets has applied with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Monday to list Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, according to a Form 19b-4.

Fidelity in March applied to launch an ETF to track the performance of bitcoin. The fund will hold bitcoin and value its shares based on prices from major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase and Bitstamp, according to a regulatory filing.

Cboe's acknowledgment to be Fidelity's exchange partner moves the application process with the SEC, CoinDesk first reported.

An exchange partner such as Cboe BZX Exchange or the New York Stock Exchange is necessary to file a Form 19b-4. Only then will the SEC review the application.

The agency will now have to respond with a decision to reject or accept the application within 45 days. The SEC has 240 days to evaluate the application in total.

The SEC in the past has rejected every cryptocurrency ETF that has applied, which now total to nearly a dozen.

Most recently, asset manager VanEck applied to launch an ethereum ETF. The VanEck Ethereum Trust would list shares on the Cboe, according to an S-1 filing.

VanEck and the Cboe are waiting for the SEC to render a decision on whether it can list a bitcoin ETF, which the asset manager applied for in March. The regulator delayed a decision until at least July 17.

Still, experts believe that with the SEC's new chairman Gary Gensler, who used to be an MIT Sloan School of Management professor teaching blockchain technology, the US will soon have its first-ever cryptocurrency ETF.

"I feel like it's inevitable. It's no longer 'if' but 'when' and I think the question of when is probably in 2021. That's my prediction," Dante Perruccio, president international of Wave Financial, a US-regulated digital asset manager, told Insider.

In Canada, the first publicly traded ETF, the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, has been approved, as well as ethereum ETFs. Brazilian regulators have reportedly approved two bitcoin ETFs.

The surge in interest in cryptocurrency ETFs rides on the skyrocketing prices of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin this year has climbed 95% year to date, ether 380%, and dogecoin around 13,000%.

Read more: Fundstrat's head of digital assets research walks us through his $100,000 and $10,500 year-end price targets for bitcoin and ether - and shares the 8 tokens he's bullish on