Grayscale gears up for legal battle with SEC over Bitcoin ETF

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein said the firm is gearing up for a legal fight if Grayscale’s Bitcoin Spot ETF product is denied by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, March 29, Sonnenshein was asked if he would consider the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) lawsuit option if the application for its Bitcoin Spot ETF was denied by the financial regulator.

“I think all options are on the table,” he responded, highlighting the importance of continuing to advocate for investors. The next decision date for the approval or denial of the investment product is July 6, 2022, it was previously delayed in February, and was originally filed in October 2021.

“The Grayscale team has been putting the full resources of our firm behind converting GBTC, our flagship fund, into an ETF. It’s really important that investors know that we have and will continue to advocate for them.”

Grayscale announced in October 2021 that it was planning to convert its Bitcoin Trust, GBTC to a Bitcoin (BTC)-settled ETF. The SEC delayed a decision to approve the product in December 2021, citing that a longer period was needed to consider the proposed changes, their action was repeated in February.

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The SEC opened the changes proposed by Grayscale to public feedback. The feedback received by the regulator showed that 95% of respondents were in support of the conversion, according to an analysis taken in February. Grayscale dedicated a portion of its website to encouraging investors to submit comments to the SEC.

“GBTC today is owned by investors in all 50 states, and there are actually now over 800,000 accounts in the U.S. all waiting patiently to have it converted into an ETF,” Sonnenshein said.

“It was really a very exciting announcement that we now have Bitcoin futures ETFs out in the market, but unfortunately, that's forced investors into those Bitcoin futures products, because those are the only ones that exist.”

Sonnenshein added that Grayscale was encouraged by the SEC’s support for crypto exchanges in registering with the regulator, as well as President Biden’s recent executive order on crypto.

“Ultimately, we believe it's a matter of when, not a matter of if a spot Bitcoin ETF is approved.”