The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) share price discount to net asset value narrowed on Friday, dropping to a near one-month low a day after investment management giant BlackRock filed for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). TradingView data shows the price of GBTC shares jumped more than 8% over the past 24 hours to near $14, outperforming the digital asset the fund holds. Over the same period, bitcoin (BTC) rose 3.5% to $25,800.
The discount is currently at around 40%, according to CoinDesk’s calculations, said journalists. This is the lowest level since mid-May, down from 44% earlier this week, but still significantly higher than the 35% level it reached earlier this spring, according to YCharts.
The filing of a spot BTC ETF by BlackRock, the world’s largest ETF issuer, has been eagerly awaited by crypto observers. Multiple investment managers, including WisdomTree, VanEck, Ark Investment Management with 21Shares, have tried to register such a product over the past two years, but the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected all applications, so far.
Grayscale, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, is currently in a legal standoff with the SEC, after the firm appealed the agency’s decision to deny converting its closed-end GBTC fund into an ETF. The so-called “GBTC discount” developed because the fund doesn’t allow redemptions, so investors can only sell their shares on secondary markets.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted that BlackRock has won regulators’ approval for ETFs in 575 cases versus a sole denial.