GBTC approval could return a couple billion dollars to investors: Grayscale CEO

In a recent podcast interview, Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is protecting Grayscale investors and giving them the true value of their assets. He said he “can’t imagine” why he “doesn’t want” to return it.

In an interview with What Bitcoin Did, the popular podcast On Feb. 25, hosted by Peter McCormack, Sonnenshine announced that the SEC has approved the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) as a Bitcoin (BTC) Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) in June 2022. He explained that he violated the Administrative Procedures Act by denying the charges. .

He explained that the act would prevent regulators from taking favourite or arbitrary actions, and approved a Bitcoin futures ETF while advocating a GBTC conversion. By refusing, the SEC acted “arbitrarily,” it added.

Sonnenshein said that when the SEC began approving the first Bitcoin ETF, Grayscale took it “as a sign” that the SEC was “changing its attitude towards Bitcoin.”

He said that once a fund is approved as a spot, it “bleeds back” to its net worth, so it actually has “billions of dollars” in capital that will quickly return to investors’ pockets overnight. I was. Bitcoin ETFs.

Sonnenshein explained that this is because GBTC currently trades at a discount to net asset value (NAV), but when converted to an ETF, the discount or premium “no longer” exists. Incorporating an arbitrage mechanism.

He reiterated that Grayscale is in the process of “currently suing the SEC” and may make a decision to challenge the SEC’s denial of initial application by “fall 2023” at the latest.

He also said that Grayscale has “over a million investor accounts” and that investors around the world expect the company to “do the right thing for them.”

Sonnenshein “can’t imagine” why the SEC doesn’t want to “protect investors” and “return their value.”

It has been noted that Grayscale does not intend to “distract” from the fact that it has “commercial interest” in this approval, and Sonnenshein said that if the SEC’s application to challenge is denied, Grayscale will not pursue this action. said it could appeal to in the US Supreme Court.

Related: SEC’s ‘One-Dimensional’ Approach Is Slowing Bitcoin Progress: Grayscale CEO

This follows the filing of a 73-page brief with the District of Columbia Circuit outlining the reasons why the SEC will reject Grayscale’s request to convert its $12 billion Bitcoin Trust into a spot-based Bitcoin ETF in December 2022. It is after June 2022.

The SEC made its decision based on its findings that Grayscale’s offer was not sufficiently protected against fraud and manipulation.

The agency has made similar findings in many previous applications for creating spot-based Bitcoin ETFs.