Greyscale: Bitcoin ETF approval is a matter of ‘when, not if’

Digital asset manager Grayscale continues to say it's only a matter of time before a Bitcoin ETF It was finally accepted.

That includes the possibility that the digital asset manager will receive approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission to switch positions to Greyscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)—an open-ended trust currently listed on the OTCQX market. Bitcoin If the ETF is converted to an ETF, the firm is considering acquiring a fund listed on the NYSE Arca exchange.

And to that end, the company asked Craig Salm, the company's chief legal officer, and Edward McGee, its chief financial officer, to answer some common questions about the transition.

“We believe that regulatory approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the US is not a matter of ‘when,'” Salm wrote on a company blog today. After approval, Grayscale will “immediately work with us. Partners to promote GBTC to NYSE Arca,” he added.

But for every bullish Bitcoin ETF forecast, there is a caveat. Gray scale He did not provide an expected timeline for the GBTC conversion. “Time limits are inherently uncertain,” Salm said

Some ETF analysts have offered educated guesses as to when the SEC might make a decision on the pending applications. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seifert said he expects to see some action from the SEC between Monday, January 8 and Wednesday, January 10.

In the year In 2022, Greyscale filed suit against the SEC, claiming the commission was unfair in refusing to accept Greyscale's application to convert the Bitcoin Trust into an ETF. Being an ETF allows the fund to simultaneously trade creations and redemptions of shares against the real-time price of Bitcoin.

There were signs that grayscale was making progress. To begin with, a judge ruled in August that the SEC should accept the company's application. In October, it became clear that the SEC would not appeal the decision and then ordered a public review of the ETF bid.

To this end, a memo published by the SEC stated that the SEC met with Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenschein and McGee last month to discuss “NYSE Arca, Inc.'s proposed changes to the listing and trading of Greyscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) shares under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E.”

Even without a spot ETF, GBTC makes up over 3% of the total BTC supply. It currently trades at an 8% discount to its asset value. But as Salm points out in a Greyscale blog post, the switch to an ETF structure will allow Greyscale to “closely track the price of Bitcoin.”

Edited by Guillermo Jimenez