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Grayscale Investments is urging the U.S. SEC to prevent what it terms an “unfairly discriminatory and prejudicial first-mover advantage,” for potential Bitcoin ETF issuers:
1/ Yesterday @Grayscale sent a comment letter to $GBTC and other spot #bitcoin ETF files restating that the SEC is in a position to approve all spot bitcoin ETFs *now*, and also commenting on the recently proposed SSAs. This thread clarifies some high-level points of the letter:
— Craig Salm (@CraigSalm) July 28, 2023
Grayscale, which is currently in a legal dispute with the SEC following the regulator’s refusal to allow the conversion of its Bitcoin Trust to an ETF, outlined its stance in a letter penned by a legal representative:
“As a disclosure-based regulator, the SEC should not pick winners and losers; instead, the SEC should continue to provide issuers with feedback or guidance consistently and equitably.”
This development comes after applications by BlackRock, Valkyrie, Invesco and others introduced a Spot Bitcoin ETF application to the SEC, which appears to have spurred additional applications upon the SEC rejection.
In an SEC filing, Nasdaq recently disclosed that it reached terms for a surveillance-sharing agreement with Coinbase concerning the listing of BlackRock’s proposed ETF. Other exchanges, such as Cboe, have included similar language in their proposals.
Grayscale’s Chief Legal Officer, Craig Salm, opined that the SEC is now in a position to approve Bitcoin ETPs as it had previously given the nod to Bitcoin futures ETFs.
3/ This is great. Because it means spot #bitcoin ETFs can be approved *today* even before the proposed SSAs with spot bitcoin markets are ready — which will take time to actually enter into, build out the tech, gain regulators’ approval etc.
— Craig Salm (@CraigSalm) July 28, 2023
Grayscale is advocating for the simultaneous approval of all Bitcoin ETF proposals, fearing that only sanctioning the most recent applicants would suggest a drastic shift in the SEC’s application of regulatory standards:
“Although Grayscale strongly supports a Commission approach that would facilitate approval of all spot bitcoin ETP proposals, approving only the above-referenced proposals would reflect a positive but sudden and significant change in the Commission’s application of the relevant statutory standard.”