According to information shared by Reuters minutes ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will not appeal the court’s decision regarding Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF and will likely abandon blocking the first Bitcoin ETF in the United States.
SEC Does Not Appeal
SEC had until midnight on Friday to appeal the court’s decision. According to Reuters, the SEC will not file an appeal and will allow this period to expire.
In August, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that SEC’s rejection of Grayscale Investment‘s Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) conversion application to an ETF was an invalid and arbitrary decision. The court stated that federal institutions should treat similar cases in the same way.
Judge Neomi Rao stated the following in August:
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently approved the trading of two bitcoin futures funds on national exchanges, but rejected approval for Grayscale’s bitcoin fund.
SEC spokespersons did not respond quickly to the request to confirm the institution’s decision. On the other hand, Grayscale spokespersons refused to comment before the decision was approved.
Will the Bitcoin ETF be Approved?
It remains uncertain how SEC will proceed in the next round regarding Grayscale’s application. SEC has the authority to reject the application based on reasons other than those rejected by the courts. However, Grayscale also has the right to appeal in court.
Grayscale initially made an ETF application in October 2021. GBTC is currently known as the world’s largest cryptocurrency fund and has been trading at a lower price than Bitcoin assets since February 2021. It reached around 50% at this low point, but has since declined to around 17%.
Grayscale has been arguing for a long time that the conversion of GBTC into an ETF will eliminate low prices as it will close the gap between GTBC price and Bitcoin.
