Grayscale Pushes SEC to Approve Bitcoin ETF Conversion

A crucial step has been taken by Grayscale, a well-known asset management in the cryptocurrency industry, to hasten the conversion of its flagship Bitcoin fund to a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). Grayscale is now pleading with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve this shift following a recent court victory.

A Clear Legal Path

After the court ruled in Grayscale’s favor on the conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the legal team for Grayscale wrote to the SEC on September 5 to discuss the next steps. The asset management claimed that there are no longer any good reasons to choose between a spot Bitcoin ETF and a Bitcoin futures ETF:

“Now that the Court of Appeals has spoken, there is no available rationale that would distinguish a Bitcoin futures ETP from a spot Bitcoin ETP under the legal analysis previously adopted by the Commission in rejecting spot Bitcoin ETPs.”

Grayscale is certain that the SEC should admit there are “no grounds” to treat the GBTC differently from Bitcoin futures ETFs, which have already received the Commission’s OK.

A Court Victory and Ongoing Delay

The latest development is the result of a United States Appeals Court decision overturning the SEC’s refusal of Grayscale’s August 29th-announced request to convert its GBTC into a spot Bitcoin ETF. Grayscale stressed that any justifications for rejecting the conversion that went beyond avoiding fraud would have been clear by now.

“We are confident that it would have surfaced by now in one of the fifteen Commission orders that rejected spot Bitcoin filings even after Bitcoin futures ETPs began trading.”

Grayscale also stated that its fund conversion application has been delayed for nearly three times as long as the SEC’s allotted time frame, adding that “the Trust’s nearly one million investors deserve this fair playing field as quickly as possible.”