By Hannah Lang

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accepted applications to create spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds from six firms including BlackRock for review, the first step in the agency's process for deciding whether or not to approve the latest round of proposals.

The SEC also formally acknowledged applications from Bitwise, VanEck, WisdomTree, Fidelity and Invesco for similar spot bitcoin ETFs, with those proposals appearing on the Federal Register Tuesday and Wednesday.

The SEC has previously rejected dozens of spot bitcoin ETF applications, saying the proposals did not meet anti-fraud and investor protection standards.

But Nasdaq -- where BlackRock proposed to list its ETF -- said earlier this month that it would address those concerns by working with Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange, to police trading in the underlying bitcoin market. Similar filings from CBOE Global Markets also proposed a similar surveillance arrangement.

The first bitcoin futures ETF was approved in October 2021, helping send the volatile bitcoin to an all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021.

Spot ETFs directly track the price of the cryptocurrency, while futures-based ETFs follow the price of bitcoin futures contracts.

(Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci)