Grayscale, the world's largest institutional cryptocurrency fund manager, has launched a campaign to pressure US regulators for the highly anticipated conversion of its BTC Trust into an exchange-traded spot fund.
Grayscale has launched a public campaign to encourage investors to add comments to their application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The world's largest digital asset manager is seeking approval to convert its popular BTC fund into a spot ETF, but the financial regulator is still procrastinating.
On February 22, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein tweeted the news that the quasi-online petition went live.
“Today Grayscale announced the launch of a new public campaign to encourage US investors to submit comments on our request to the SEC to convert $GBTC into a Spot Bitcoin ETF.”
Pressing the SEC
The campaign aims to gain enough support from institutional investors and US finance professionals for the SEC to finally take notice and approve a spot-based cryptocurrency fund.
So far, the firm regulator has only approved a handful of Bitcoin funds that are backed by futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), not the physical asset itself.
Sonnenshein explained that there is a standard 240-day review period during which the public is invited to submit comments to the SEC for consideration as part of the application process.
“This campaign aims to educate and inspire the investment community to take action and make their voices heard in this historic decision.”
a landing page was created on Grayscale's website to direct investors and executives on how to submit their comments to the SEC. It suggested that interested parties email the SEC with their reasons why the regulator should approve the conversion. ETFStore President Nate Geraci commented:
“SEC about to be inundated with public comment in support of GBTC to ETF conversion… Grayscale has set up a webpage to facilitate the process. Gotta love it."
comments piling up
As reported by BeInCrypto over the weekend, comments were already rising with nearly 200 responses logged at the time. Grayscale has now made it official, encouraging this list to grow.
One of the most recent comments on the official SEC registration page pointed out the obvious:
“The SEC's job is to protect investors. Current rules are not achieving that goal. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, as it currently stands, is a lesser investment vehicle than its conversion to a spot ETF would allow. The approved futures ETF is much riskier for investors and reflects a double standard on the part of management.”
Grayscale originally proposed converting the world's largest BTC fund into a spot ETF in October, however, the SEC delayed the decision, as it did with many others on Feb.
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