Bitcoin surged 1% in the past 15 minutes after the USCA-DC Opinions page, which was expected to announce a decision on Grayscale’s GBTC Trust, crashed. The crash occurred at 14:00 UTC on August 29, 2023, and there has been no decision announced yet.
The crash caused widespread speculation that a decision had been made in favor of Grayscale, which has been seeking to convert its GBTC Trust into a spot ETF. A spot ETF would allow GBTC to track the price of Bitcoin directly, rather than the price of Bitcoin futures.
The crash also caused a sharp increase in trading volume for Bitcoin. Over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin was traded in the past 15 minutes, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The crash is a sign of the high level of interest in the outcome of the Grayscale case. A decision in favor of Grayscale would be a major victory for the cryptocurrency industry and could lead to further investment in Bitcoin.
The Grayscale case has been ongoing for over a year. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected two previous applications from Grayscale to convert its GBTC Trust into a spot ETF.
The SEC has cited concerns about the potential for market manipulation and the lack of a regulated market for Bitcoin futures. Grayscale has argued that its GBTC Trust is already a regulated product and that there is a growing market for Bitcoin futures.
The SEC is expected to make a decision on the Bitcoin ETFs in the coming months.
