Apr. 05, 2022
My name is Robert Schneider and I live at 121 E Julian St, San Jose, CA 95112. I am 34 years old. I've been an investor in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) in both my taxable brokerage and tax-deferred retirement accounts since 2016, and have been a bitcoin investor since March 2013. My motivation for investing in the asset has always been a principled understanding of economics which recognizes that Bitcoin is non-confiscatable ultra hard money that can never be debased by central banks, and is thus a superior savings instrument. Over 80% of my net worth is tied up in various flavors of the asset. I come from a working class background and all of my net worth is from invested income I have earned through employment. My immediate savings goal is to purchase a home in the bay area where I live, but this goal always seems just out of reach for young people like me. As a responsible capital allocator with a wife and two young children, I have been disappointed and harmed to have watched the substantial premium to net asset value (NAV) on the GBTC security plummet to a steep discount to NAV. I purchased GBTC shares on the open market as I am not an accredited investor. The uncertainty of whether the SEC will approve a spot ETF continues to weigh heavily on my emotional and financial well being, as an ETF rejection would likely cause my savings to plummet further in value, while an ETF approval would unlock significant value that I believe is rightfully my property, i.e., the value of the underlying bitcoin held in my shares of the trust. I continue to hold GBTC as I believe that the SEC will eventually approve the Grayscale ETF application in good faith. The SEC's inaction to proactively approve Grayscale's ETF in short order has harmed me and placed a toll on my family's ability to purchase a home. I humbly request and recommend that the SEC carefully consider and approve Grayscale's ETF application in pursuit of the SEC's mandate to protect retail investors, bring regulatory certainty to the market, and mitigate market dislocations. Such an approval would bring fairness, trust, and maturity to the nascent and burgeoning asset class and further bolster the SEC's credibility and the United States' geo-political leadership. Best regards, Robert Schneider