Grayscale Wants to Collaborate with SEC on Spot Bitcoin ETF

• Grayscale submitted a letter requesting cooperation with the SEC on the next steps in converting the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot Bitcoin ETF.
• Grayscale noted that fund conversion requests are pending almost three times the time specified in the SEC regulations.
• Since the 29 August court decision, The GBTC discount, which shows how much above or below an ETF’s net asset value, is down to 19.9%.

In a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Grayscale expressed his request to conduct a joint study on the spot Bitcoin ETF.

Grayscale Submits A Letter To The SEC Regarding ETF

On Tuesday, September 5th, Grayscale, the world’s largest asset manager, submitted a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting collaboration on the next steps toward converting Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Grayscale noted that, following the recent court decision, the SEC no longer has a legal reason to obstruct this transformation. In their letter on Tuesday, Grayscale stated:

“Now that the Appeals Court has spoken, there is no longer any logical reason for the Commission to treat a Bitcoin futures ETP any differently than a spot Bitcoin ETP within the legal analysis framework previously endorsed by the Commission.”

Additionally, Grayscale believes there are “no valid reasons” to treat GBTC differently from Bitcoin futures ETFs that have previously been approved by the Commission.

Notably, on August 29th, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against the SEC’s decision to deny Grayscale’s request to convert GBTC into a traditional Bitcoin ETF.

No Reasons for SEC’s Denial

Grayscale emphasized that they believe no additional reasons exist to reject the conversion, other than those required by the Securities Exchange Act to prevent fraud and manipulative acts.

The asset manager wrote, “We are confident that such an additional rationale would have arisen long before, especially after Bitcoin futures ETPs began trading, from the Commission’s 15 orders denying spot Bitcoin applications.”

Grayscale also pointed out that conversion requests for the fund have been pending for nearly three times the duration specified in SEC regulations. Joseph A. Hall, the author of Grayscale’s previous letter in July requesting simultaneous approval of all pending ETF applications, concluded the latest letter with the statement:

“We believe that the Trust’s nearly one million investors deserve a level playing field as soon as possible.”

Since the court decision on August 29th, the GBTC discount, which indicates how much an ETF’s net asset value is trading above or below, has decreased to 19.9%. During the bear market following FTX’s crash in December 2022, GBTC’s discount had approached negative 50%.