Grayscale Investments has informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that there is no grounds to reject the conversion of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Last week, the SEC was ordered by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review its prior rejection of the conversion, with Circuit Judge Neomi Rao agreeing with Grayscale’s position that its proposed product is not materially different from bitcoin futures exchange-traded products (ETPs) that already trade in the U.S.
In a letter to the regulator on Tuesday, Grayscale’s legal team wrote, After the Commission has had the opportunity to fully analyze the court’s opinion in light of the record, including the reasons for rejection set forth … we believe the Commission should conclude that there are no grounds for treating the Trust differently from ETPs that invest in bitcoin futures contracts.
The company also took a jab at the SEC’s track record for rejecting spot bitcoin ETF applications, noting that if there was any difference between these and futures-based product, it would have surfaced by now in one of the 15 Commission orders that rejected spot bitcoin Rule 19b-4 filings even after bitcoin futures ETPs began trading.
Last week’s court decision required the SEC to review its rejection of Grayscale’s application, not to approve it.