Grayscale renews efforts to release a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund on the American Markets! Grayscale renews efforts according to a roadmap published on Medium by the company. GBTC and ETHE are on the short-list to become proper ETFS. The company has not indicated any concrete efforts, however, since those filings require filing with the SEC.
Grayscale is one of the major providers of cryptocurrency exposure in traditional markets. They operate several trust funds for major cryptocurrencies, and those funds hold cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, and BCH. They issue shares that are expected to reflect the value of the underlying assets.
According to their roadmap, each trust fund falls into four categories of development. The first is the private placement phase, where the funds are only available for sale and purchase.
The second category is the publicly-listed shares on secondary markets. The trust funds would receive a ticker symbol and become tradeable by the public. Funds for BCH, LTC, and ETC (Ethereum classic) all fall into this category. The most advanced trusts achieve “SEC reporting” status, committing to periodic disclosure of their balance sheets and operations to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bitcoin and Ethereum trusts are reporting to the SEC currently.
The last and most coveted status is that of an ETF, a fully regulated and Louis fund. ETFs are commonly used for exposure to indexes or baskets of assets in US markets. ETFs have lower management fees, usually, and achieve wider reach than trusts.
A Bitcoin ETF has been the driving story behind many Bitcoin stories since 2017. Grayscale first attempted an ETF with the SEC, but regulators have consistently rejected these filings. Bitwise applied for an ETF however their claim for up to 90% of volume was non-existent.
Grayscale is not the only company seeking an ETF – with VanEck, WisdomTree, and Skybridge already pursuing an ETF in 2021. Given the history of rejections, the company has hedged its ETF promise by noting that this is compliant for regulatory environment. The difference between Grayscale’s first attempt and now is that institutional acceptance and infrastructure – hopefully the SEC may be more amenable to their request this time around because of it.
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