Grayscale tells SEC “no basis” to approve Bitcoin futures ETFs and not deliver ETFs

Grayscale Investments has protested the US Securities and Exchange Commission because VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ETF application was recently rejected.

The operator of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) sent a letter to the SEC’s secretary Vanessa Countryman on Nov. 29, arguing that the SEC was wrong to reject the spot bitcoin ETFs because it currently has three bitcoin futures -ETFs approved, one each from VanEck, Valkyrie and ProShares.

Grayscale argued that the SEC “has no basis on which to believe that investing in the derivatives market for an asset is acceptable to investors while investing in the asset itself is unacceptable”.

She alleged the SEC violated the Administrative Protection Act (APA) by not treating two Bitcoin ETF products alike.

A Bitcoin Futures ETF allows traders to speculate on the future price of Bitcoin (BTC) via derivatives, while a Spot Bitcoin ETF allows traders to trade at the current price of the assets, similar to holding assets to work.

Grayscale is hardly an impartial party with an application filed in October to include GBTC as a spot Bitcoin ETF, with the decision likely to be made on Christmas Eve. On November 12, the SEC denied a similar motion from VanEck on the grounds that it did not meet the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Trade Act).

Grayscale contradicts these refusals.

“We believe that this justification has not taken into account significant regulatory and competitive developments since 2017, when the Commission first reviewed and rejected an application for admission and trading from a national exchange for Spot Bitcoin ETP.”

In approving the Bitcoin Futures ETF, Grayscale believes the SEC allowed the applicant to circumvent the requirements of Section 6 (5) (b) of the Stock Exchange Act that applicants must meet for a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Section 6 (5) (b) is designed to “protect investors and the public interest” by preventing fraud and market manipulation and by not allowing “unfair discrimination between customers, issuers, brokers or agents”.

Related: Invesco launches spot Bitcoin ETP on Deutsche Börse

Grayscale has predicted that its spot Bitcoin ETF could be listed as early as July 2022, but it is unclear whether that prediction will come true.

GBTC has approximately $ 37.1 billion in assets under management with 692,370,100 shares outstanding.