Feb. 22, 2022
To whom it may concern, In my estimation as a risk-aware investor, having a bitcoin ETF would not be unduly risky if made available to the public, especially in comparison to other ETFs that are currently approved by the SEC. Many investors are currently seeking bitcoin exposure in other products in vehicles that are inferior to a spot bitcoin ETF, for example the bitcoin futures ETFs. I would echo the the words of Congressmen Emmer and Soto in their letter to the Chair Gensler in November 2021: "Spot-based ETFs have proven more efficient and are strongly preferred by investors, as evidenced by their commercial success; we believe the same will be true for Bitcoin exposure in an ETF wrapper. For example, today investors can gain exposure to gold through both the spot-based SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), which is registered under the Securities Act of 1933, or the futures-based Invesco DB Gold Fund (DGL), which is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. In its 15 years trading in the U.S. public markets, GLD, the largest of all the commodity-based ETFs, has not experienced any material investor protection issues and holds $55.5 billion in assets compared to DGL’s $50.4 million (less than 1% as much).iii Investors clearly prefer spot-based commodity ETFs over ones that hold futures. Lastly, during the period in which the SEC has blocked approval of any Bitcoin ETFs, numerous spot Bitcoin investment vehicles have been offered. These products have amassed more than $40 billion in assets under management and are held by hundreds of thousands of investors across the country.iv Some of these products are currently trading on OTC markets and have voluntarily registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to subject themselves to the same reporting standards as ETFs. However, because these products have been unable to register as ETFs with the SEC, public trading typically occurs at a value that is not equivalent to net asset value, and in fact, these products have recently been trading at steep discounts to their net asset value. Permitting futures-based ETFs while simultaneously continuing to deny spot-based ETFs would further perpetuate these discounts and clearly go against the SEC’s core mission of protecting investors." For the protection of investors, please approve the conversion of GBTC to an ETF. Sincerely, -- Jim Voitier