May. 06, 2022
Dear SEC, I am 48 year old California Highway Patrol Sergeant from Irvine, California and I am in favor of approving the Form 19b-4 that NYSE Arca filed with you to convert Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC) – the world’s largest publicly traded crypto asset fund, with approximately $30 billion in AUM, hundreds of millions in daily trading volume, more than 850,000 investors, holding approximately 3.4% of all Bitcoins outstanding – into a Bitcoin Spot ETF. I am fortunate enough to be a high school graduate who sought out investing information at an early age and took over my retirement plan investments in 2009 using the available self directed option. I understand the protections in place for investors but am equally frustrated by these protections. I have over the years become an accredited investor but prior to reaching this status I was unable to participate in investments the wealthy of this country use every day. Even with protections I have invested in an oil company (Magnum Hunter Resources) which went bankrupt and I have invested in a company which has returned 1000% gain. These protections do not prevent investors from losing money when citizens can take the same money gamble their way to loses. It is important we find away to allow citizens to test for accredited investor status but that is a topic for another day as my primary concern is allow a spot ETF for Bitcoin. I personally feel the future Bitcoin market is being used to manipulate the price whereas a spot ETF would allow long term investors to indicate their forecasted value for Bitcoin on a longer term horizon. I am currently an investor in GBTC within my retirement account. This year, GBTC has traded at an approximately 25% discount to its NAV, which means the price of GBTC is less than the price of its underlying assets, Bitcoin. With approximately $30 billion in AUM, that results in approximately $7.5 billion of trapped value from existing U.S. investors. Sincerely, Chad New