Grayscale has informed the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it no longer has legal grounds to prevent the asset manager's flagship Bitcoin (BTC) fund from being converted to a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Grayscale's lawyers requested a meeting with the SEC on September 5 following the regulator's court setback involving the conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

“Now that the Court of Appeals has spoken, there is no available rationale that would distinguish a Bitcoin futures ETP from a spot Bitcoin ETP under the legal analysis previously adopted by the Commission in rejecting spot Bitcoin ETPs.”

Grayscale says the SEC should find "no grounds" to treat the GBTC differently than Bitcoin futures ETFs whose filings "the Commission has previously approved."

On August 29, a United States Appeals Court overturned the Securities and Exchange Commission's denial of Grayscale's application to convert its GBTC to a spot Bitcoin ETF.

If there was any other basis for rejecting the conversion outside the Exchange Act's requirement that rules be "designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices," Grayscale said it would have been made apparent.

“We are confident that it would have surfaced by now in one of the fifteen Commission orders that rejected spot Bitcoin filings even after Bitcoin futures ETPs began trading,” Grayscale stated.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-asks-sec-meet-for-bitcoin-etf-conversion

https://cryptonews.com/news/grayscale-urges-sec-greenlight-spot-bitcoin-etf-as-quickly-as-possible.htm

https://grayscale2021s.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GBTC-DPW-Letter-to-SEC-re-DC-Circuit-Court-Decision.pdf