• Grayscale Investments LLC participated in oral arguments before the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on Tuesday, arguing for its popular Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to be converted into a spot bitcoin ETF.
• In the arguments, presiding judges Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Neomi Rao questioned the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) reasoning behind previously denying attempts at introducing a spot bitcoin ETF.
• The SEC maintained that it lacked empirical evidence that fraud and manipulation in spot markets would affect futures markets in the same way, prompting questioning from the judges about their decision making process.
Grayscale Argues for Spot Bitcoin ETF Conversion
On Tuesday, Grayscale Investments LLC presented oral arguments before the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, advocating for its popular Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to be converted into a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Presiding Judges Question SEC
Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Neomi Rao presided over these arguments, questioning the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) repeated denial of attempts at introducing a spot bitcoin ETF. The SEC maintained that it lacked enough empirical evidence to prove that fraud and manipulation in spot markets would affect futures markets in the same way. This prompted questioning from the judges about their decision making process, with Judge Rao asking “The SEC has not offered any explanation that the petitioners are wrong.”
SEC Stands by Decisions
In response to these questions, Senior Counsel Emily Parise stood by previous decisions made by SEC to deny applications, stating that correlation does not equal causation and further empirical evidence is required to ensure surveillance of future markets can be relied upon when approving a spot ETF.
Grayscale Suing SEC
Grayscale has since sued the SEC over its decision making process regarding this issue being allegedly arbitrary and inconsistent with its approval of Bitcoin futures ETFs.
Record Can Be Listened To Here
A full record of this hearing can be listened here: [LINK].
