Compartilhe este artigo

Grayscale Says It's '100% Committed to Converting GBTC Into an ETF'

In a blog post, the world's largest digital asset manager, confirmed its intent to offer an ETF.

Grayscale Investments said it's "100% committed" to converting its flagship Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

A História Continua abaixo
Não perca outra história.Inscreva-se na Newsletter Crypto Long & Short hoje. Ver Todas as Newsletters

In a blog post, the world's largest digital asset manager confirmed its intent to re-apply with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer an ETF.

"First and foremost we wish to make clear: we are 100% committed to converting GBTC into an ETF," Grayscale said in the post. (New York-based Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk.)

The U.S. approval of a bitcoin ETF has remained one of the white whales of the crypto industry, with the SEC rejecting dozens of applications in recent years. Some industry observers see an ETF, which provides traditional investors with access to BTC without having to hold the asset itself, as a potential game-changer.

Read more: Grayscale, Firm Behind Leading Bitcoin Trust, Is Hiring ETF Specialists

"Grayscale first submitted an application for a Bitcoin ETF in 2016 and spent the better part of 2017 in conversations with the SEC," the firm wrote in its blog post. "Ultimately, we withdrew our application because we believed the regulatory environment for digital assets had not advanced to the point where such a product could successfully be brought to market."

GBTC's collapsing premium

GBTC has been trading at a discount to the price of bitcoin for more than a month. Historically, GBTC had traded at a premium to the price of bitcoin. Shares of GBTC had traded at more than a 35% premium in mid-December, according to data from YCharts.

Analysts speculate the current discount is being caused by market competition.

From alternatives like Osprey’s bitcoin fund to a flood of Canadian bitcoin ETFs, institutional investors now have more choices for seamless bitcoin exposure.

In early March, CoinDesk learned Grayscale was hiring several ETF specialists.

Nate DiCamillo
Kevin Reynolds

Kevin Reynolds is editor-in-chief at CoinDesk. Prior to joining the company in mid-2020, Reynolds spent 23 years at Bloomberg, where he won two CEO awards for moving the needle for the entire company and established himself as one of the world's leading experts in real-time financial news. In addition to having done almost every job in the newsroom, Reynolds built, scaled and ran products for every asset class, including First Word, a 250-person global news/analysis service for professional clients, as well as Bloomberg's Speed Desk and the training program that all Bloomberg News hires worldwide are required to take. He also turned around several other operations, including the company's flash headlines desk and was instrumental in the turnaround of Bloomberg's BGOV unit. He shares a patent for a content management system he helped design, is a Certified Scrum Master, and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. He owns bitcoin, ether, polygon and solana.

Kevin Reynolds