By James Davis
On Thursday, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) issued a statement urging the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to give the green light to all spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) applications submitted to the agency in recent months.
Craig Salm, the Grayscale Chief Legal Officer, said the SEC’s decision in relation to spot Bitcoin ETFs must be arrived at in a fair manner. He also stated that the agency shouldn’t pick losers and winners.
GBTC holds assets estimated to be worth $18.5 million. The company is popular for giving investors exposure to Bitcoin without actually owning it. However, it wants to convert from a Bitcoin fund to a Bitcoin ETF. But the SEC has turned down GBTC’s application for spot Bitcoin previously, prompting the company to move to court.
Although Bitcoin funds and ETFs allow investors to inject money into BTC without owning the asset, most crypto players believe that ETFs have a better chance of promoting mainstream adoption of BTC and could also help the digital currency be recognized as an asset class.
More Asset Managers File for Spot Bitcoin ETFs
Last month, several asset managers, including BlackRock, Invesco, Fidelity, and WisdomTree, filed for spot Bitcoin ETF with the SEC. The regulatory has in the past rejected all spot-based ETF applications because of market manipulation and fraud concerns.
A week after Fidelity and BlackRock submitted their applications, the SEC released a statement saying they weren’t sufficient since they lacked surveillance-sharing agreements. BlackRock quickly amended its application which saw the inclusion of Coinbase as the firm’s surveillance-sharing partner. This means when BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF is approved and listed on Nasdaq, Coinbase will work with the stock exchange to provide any market data in case Nasdaq wants to investigate suspected manipulation.
So far, the SEC has approved multiple futures Bitcoin ETFs. And for this reason, Grayscale says the SEC should also approve spot-based ETFs as the two are “intrinsically linked.”
Moreover, In March this year, the Judge presiding over Grayscale’s case against the SEC criticized the regulator’s decision-making and wondered what basis it used to deny GBTC’s application for spot Bitcoin ETF.
Meanwhile, GBTC says it is ready to work with the SEC to get approval for a spot Bitcoin ETF as soon as possible.
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