Apr. 07, 2022
To whom it may concern, I purchased shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) because it is the only way to get exposure to Bitcoin through my retirement account. I also persuaded my brother to do the same. I think Bitcoin is an exciting new technology that merits a place in my retirement portfolio. I was rather shocked to see the delta appear between the price of GBTC and Bitcoin over the last year. GBTC has dramatically underperformed compared with Bitcoin. This seemed especially strange since GBTC was more expensive than Bitcoin for a few years. What changed? It turns out what changed is that the SEC has done something that surprised the market participants. The SEC has refused to allow a Bitcoin spot ETF! This seems rather shocking to me, since Bitcoin is a large, important asset, traded globally on a highly liquid market 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What is the SEC's problem with allowing Grayscale to convert to an ETF? There are spot ETFs approved in many other countries now. There are Bitcoin futures ETFs approved in the USA. What is the big issue here? Is Grayscale ever going to be permitted by the regulators to do right by its customers? The SEC's actions are certainly not protecting me. They are certainly not protecting my brother. In fact, the SEC's actions are harming me and my brother, and I do not understand what about the SEC's mission is the justification for this.