FX168 Financial News Agency (Hong Kong) News Wednesday (September 6) Asian market, bitcoin at $25,760 failed to come out of the short side. After Grayscale’s victory, bitcoin surged above $27,000 for a while, but the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission swallowed the defeat and then postponed the resolution for seven bitcoin spot ETFs, causing the bullish sentiment to dissipate. In another twist, Grayscale sent a formal letter on Tuesday asking the SEC to hold an in-person meeting to actually begin the next step of approving “all” bitcoin spot ETFs.
Joseph Hall, a partner at Grayscale’s law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, sent a letter to the SEC requesting a face-to-face meeting to discuss the regulator’s next steps after it lost a court battle over Grayscale’s GBTC conversion, which was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals on August 29, when the SEC refused to allow Grayscale to convert GBTC into a Bitcoin spot ETF. into a Bitcoin spot ETF.
(Source: CoinTelegraph)
The letter reads, “Now that the Court of Appeals has spoken, there is no available reason to distinguish bitcoin futures from a spot ETF based on the legal analysis that the SEC used in its prior rejection of a bitcoin spot ETF.”
Grayscale added that they believe the SEC should quickly conclude that “there is no reason to treat GBTC differently from a bitcoin futures ETF. The firm also emphasized that the Bitcoin Futures ETF has already been approved by the SEC.
Joseph stressed that the SEC must approve the grayed out Rule 19b-4 filing, the form used to notify the SEC of proposed rule changes.
(Source: Twitter)
An SEC spokesperson said last week that the regulator is “reviewing the court’s decision to determine next steps.” But it’s worth noting that the court’s ruling in favor of Shades of Gray doesn’t force the SEC to approve GBTC’s conversion to an ETF; rather, it tells the SEC that it can’t use its previous rationale for denying the conversion.
This adds uncertainty to the next move, and it is clear from the bitcoin market last week that the approval of a spot bitcoin ETF will have a direct impact on the bitcoin market against a backdrop of low trading volumes.
If there was any reason to deny the switch other than the Exchange Act’s requirement that rules be “designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices,” Grayscale said, it’s already clear. We believe that even after the bitcoin futures ETF begins trading, this issue will appear as one of the 15 orders denying bitcoin cash applications,” Grayscale writes.
Grayscale added, “The wait time for GBTC fund conversion requests is nearly three times longer than the time required by SEC rules.”
In an interview with Bloomberg last week, Grayscale’s chief legal officer, Craig Salm, said he was confident that the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash ETF, if approved, would be able to compete with products proposed by competitors such as BlackRock and Fidelity.
“We believe that
