Finally Grayscale & SEC held a meeting to discuss Bitcoin spot ETF

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The first ever meeting between Grayscale & the SEC agency happened to discuss the change in rules ahead of the Bitcoin spot ETF listing plan.

Grayscale is a popular digital assets fund manager, popularly known for its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which allows people to invest in Bitcoin on behalf of Grayscale. Four months ago, Grayscale secured a win against the SEC agency and secured legal authority to get approval for GBTC to convert into a Bitcoin spot ETF product. 

On 20 Nov 2023, A memo by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed that the first meeting between SEC and Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein & other four executives happened. 

In the meeting, there were also five Davis Polk law firm representatives, who met with the SEC’s division of trading and markets. 

The meeting was mainly focussed on “concerned NYSE Arca, Inc.’s proposed rule change to list and trade shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E.”

According to a filing shared by an ETF expert James Seyffart, Grayscale will use BNY Mellon Bank as an agent in the issuance and redemption of shares and maintaining shareholder accounts.

James said that the agreement between Grayscale & BNY Mellon was a necessary thing which was always required for any spot ETF product but it doesn’t mean that Grayscale is very near to getting approval for its Bitcoin spot ETF application. 

Today, ETF Store President Nate Geraci also shared his personal opinion and said that the last meeting between Grayscale & SEC concluded that there are no concerns about converting GBTC into a Bitcoin spot ETF product.

At present 10 Bitcoin spot ETF applications by top fund managers including BlackRock, and Fidelity are in queue to get approval from the SEC body.

In the last month, the majority of the Bitcoin proponents claimed that it will take less than a month for all such applications to get approval but the latest development showed that no spot ETF applications will get approval this year. 

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