Grayscale Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm issued an open letter saying that the Grayscale legal team submitted a comment letter to GBTC’s pending 19b-4 application and seven other spot Bitcoin BTC 1.69% ETF filings, including the new-proposed supervision sharing agreement (SSA ), which is to illustrate why the SEC should approve all spot Bitcoin ETF applications.
Craig Salm wrote: We remain encouraged by the momentum in spot Bitcoin ETF applications.
This not only highlights the continued maturation of the Bitcoin spot market, but also reinforces our long-standing belief that US investors should be able to purchase spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US.
There are a few key takeaways from the comment letter: First, as clarified in the lawsuit, the SEC has been able to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF on top of its previous approval of a Bitcoin futures ETF.
Bitcoin’s spot and futures markets are inextricably linked (third-party research shows a 99% correlation).
That means regulation of the CME Bitcoin futures market — a larger market regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and a member of the Intermarket Surveillance Group, a shared marketplace A regulated global network of exchanges should be sufficient to prevent potential fraud or manipulation in the underlying spot Bitcoin market.
Second, the SEC’s actions related to Bitcoin ETFs should be conducted in a fair and orderly manner. As a disclosure-based regulator, the SEC should not be picking winners and losers. Instead, the SEC should continue to provide feedback or guidance to issuers consistently and fairly.
Ultimately, this is about ensuring that U.S. investors are protected and able to choose their preferred Bitcoin investment vehicle.
Nearly 1 million investors in all 50 states of the United States own GBTC, and the conversion of GBTC to ETF will bring billions of dollars in returns to these investors.
When the SEC is ready to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF application, there is simply no reason to stop GBTC investors from buying the spot Bitcoin ETF they deserve, and we will continue to advocate for this proposal on behalf of investors.
