Grayscale Investments has submitted a letter to the SEC voicing opposition to any preferential treatment to new spot BTC ETF applicants, warning of an unfairly prejudicial first-mover advantage.
Grayscale Investments is urging the U.S. SEC to prevent what it terms an “unfairly discriminatory and prejudicial first-mover advantage,” for potential Bitcoin ETF issuers:
1/ Yesterday @Grayscale sent a comment letter to $GBTC and other spot #bitcoin ETF files restating that the SEC is in a position to approve all spot bitcoin ETFs *now*, and also commenting on the recently proposed SSAs. This thread clarifies some high-level points of the letter:
— Craig Salm (@CraigSalm) July 28, 2023
Grayscale, which is currently in a legal dispute with the SEC following the regulator’s refusal to allow the conversion of its Bitcoin Trust to an ETF, outlined its stance in a letter penned by a legal representative:
3/ This is great. Because it means spot #bitcoin ETFs can be approved *today* even before the proposed SSAs with spot bitcoin markets are ready — which will take time to actually enter into, build out the tech, gain regulators’ approval etc.
— Craig Salm (@CraigSalm) July 28, 2023
Grayscale is advocating for the simultaneous approval of all Bitcoin ETF proposals, fearing that only sanctioning the most recent applicants would suggest a drastic shift in the SEC’s application of regulatory standards:
“Although Grayscale strongly supports a Commission approach that would facilitate approval of all spot bitcoin ETP proposals, approving only the above-referenced proposals would reflect a positive but sudden and significant change in the Commission’s application of the relevant statutory standard.”