- According to Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, the SEC had no reason to deny Grayscale’s BTC ETF.
- After the BTC ETF rejection, Grayscale sued the SEC.
- Thousands of crypto advocates including Coinbase expressed their support for Grayscale.
A couple of days after Grayscale filed a lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), leading American crypto exchange Coinbase expressed its support. However, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal highlighted that Grayscale did not seek any special favor during its filing of a bitcoin ETF, to begin with.
Grewal pointed out that its support for Grayscale is based on the notion that the SEC has approved futures-based bitcoin ETFs in the past. Some of the notable ETFs include ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF and Valkyrie Bitcoin ETF. Consequently, the SEC should not have had any sound reason for declining Grayscale’s request, as pointed out by Grewal.
People interested in the matter also believe that the SEC has barred investors from enjoying the advantages of a bitcoin ETF, which would have given them access to the cryptocurrency without having to make a direct purchase.
Consequently, Grayscale has filed a lawsuit against the SEC, which received support from thousands of crypto-friendly entities including Coinbase. In detail, the SEC received 11,000 letters showing unprecedented support for Grayscale.
Craig Salm, Grayscale’s Chief Legal Officer, also commented:
“If you just look at the SEC comment letters, a lot of them were from our investors who very much believe there’s an investor protection issue here and that allowing GBTC to convert into an ETF would only make the product more protected, more regulated and help it better track its underlying asset value.”
For those who were previously uninitiated, Grayscale has filed an application to turn its bitcoin portfolio into an ETF. Specifically, this is the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which provides bitcoin exposure for the portfolio manager’s institutional investors.
