The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently had a meeting with Grayscale Investments to discuss its bid to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot Bitcoin ETF.
The SEC published a memo, which revealed that the meeting had taken place between officials of the Division of Trading and Markets of the SEC and Grayscale principals CFO Ed McGee and CEO Michael Sonnenshein.
It was regarding the proposed rule change by NYSE Arca, Inc. for listing and trading shares of the GBTC under an NYSE Arca Rule.
The court
An order had been issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals in October this year in which the SEC was told to review Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF application.
This was after the digital asset manager had filed a lawsuit against the regulatory body due to its refusal to permit the conversion of GBTC into a Bitcoin ETF.
The company had said that the judgment of the SEC was capricious and arbitrary because it had accepted other Bitcoin ETF products that were similarly structured.
Back in August, the court’s judges had also agreed with this assessment of the company unanimously.
The legalities
The court had noted at the time that a coherent explanation had not been provided by the SEC for its refusal to allow the conversion of the GBTC.
The court said that the SEC had been unable to explain why it did not approve Grayscale’s proposed ETP product when it had approved two bitcoin futures ETPs.
It further said that since there was no explanation given, the different regulatory treatment could not be considered lawful.
In October this year, the SEC had submitted an S-3 filing to the security agency and had noted that it could submit the shorter form as opposed to the S-1.
This is due to the fact that since January 2020, the company’s shares have been duly registered in accordance with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Plus, the company is also able to meet the other requirements that are mentioned on the form. It further said that as soon as it gets regulatory approvals, it would start operating as an ETP.
More details
Grayscale planning to use the GBTC symbol for listing the spot Bitcoin ETF on NYSE Arca and the transfer agent for the trust’s shares would be the Bank of New York.
Up until now, the SEC has turned down all applications submitted for a spot Bitcoin ETF, even though this year has seen numerous applications being submitted.
This includes one of the largest asset managers in the world, BlackRock. This month also saw an eight-day window close during which the SEC could have approved all Bitcoin ETF applications.
Instead, the SEC will now revisit the said applications in the coming year. According to most analysts, there is a strong chance of a spot Bitcoin ETF receiving approval in early January.
It was later revealed that after meeting with Grayscale, the SEC also had a meeting with BlackRock about its spot Bitcoin ETF application as well.