Grayscale Challenges US securities body legally regarding Bitcoin spot ETF

Grayscale Investments jumped against the US SEC agency through a legal procedure to convert its GBTC into a Bitcoin spot ETF.

Grayscale Investment is a firm, which manages digital asset investment funds. It is a subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group, which also owns the crypto & blockchain news digital media company Coindesk. Grayscale’ GBTC and Ethereum fund are popularly known crypto-backed funds, which allow wealthy Investors to invest in cryptocurrencies directly. 

On June 29, Grayscale firm announced that Donald B. Verrilli Jr., Senior Legal Strategist, former U.S. Solicitor General,  filed a petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 

Verrelli said that the legal decision shows that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)  is acting “arbitrarily and capriciously” by “failing to apply consistent treatment to similar investment vehicles” and will be pursuing a legal challenge based on the SEC’s alleged violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and Securities Exchange Act (SEA).

Grayscale, GBTC & SEC

Bitcoin-backed fund GBTC is a popularly purchased fund among the wealthy Investors, who are interested in cryptocurrencies. In October 2021, Grayscale filed its application with SEC Agency to convert its GBTC into Bitcoin spot ETF. 

In the past 6-7 months, the SEC Agency rejected many Bitcoin spot ETFs applications but approved many Bitcoin futures ETFs applications.

According to the working system of futures ETFs and spot ETFs, spot ETFs always remain safe over futures but still the SEC agency denied the approve any such Bitcoin spot ETFs. 

To fight against this issue, Grayscale firm hired Donald B. Verrilli Jr., Who is now working as a Senior Legal Strategist for Grayscale. He is also a former U.S. Solicitor General. Now step of Grayscale firm through a legal process is giving confidence to the crypto community because approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs may bring huge positive news and a better situation for the market to move toward a pump side. 

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