Grayscale, one of the leading digital asset management firms, has stated that there has been a wealth of backing for its application to launch a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).
At the beginning of the week, Grayscale stated that nearly 11,500 letters sent to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were regarding to the proposed Bitcoin investment vehicle. According to Grayscale:
“99.96 percent of those comment letters were supportive of Grayscale’s case”, with roughly 33% of the letters querying why there was a lack of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States. This, especially so, since the SEC had already given approval to investment vehicles associated to Bitcoin futures. In February, Grayscale encouraged the general public to engage with the SEC to comment on the application.
Today @Grayscale announced the launch of a new public campaign to encourage American investors to submit comments on our application with the SEC to convert $GBTC to a Spot Bitcoin ETF.
— Sonnenshein (@Sonnenshein) February 22, 2022
Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein weighed in on the SEC’s actions, saying:
“We remain encouraged by the SEC’s actions over the past eight months, which have signaled an increased recognition of and comfort with the maturity of the underlying Bitcoin market. The SEC first allowed trading to commence for Bitcoin futures ETFs in October 2021 under the 1940 Act. Then, in April 2022, the SEC approved a Bitcoin futures ETF registered under the 1933 Act, which is the same regulation GBTC would fall under.
He continued to look at the future and current status of events with regards to the SEC and Bitcoin ETFs:
“Most recently, another Bitcoin-linked investment product started trading: the first Short Bitcoin Futures ETF. The approval of each and every Bitcoin-linked investment product strengthens our arguments about why the U.S. market deserves a spot Bitcoin ETF.”
But, as you know, the SEC continues to prohibit spot-based ETFs from coming to market, so the Grayscale team has been preparing for all possible post-ruling scenarios.”