May. 06, 2022
Dear SEC, A great deal of our retirement savings is tied up in an asset you are very slowly reviewing. This money is locked into a fund that many of us assumed would be an ETF by now. Because of the lack of approval our investment is worth only a fraction of what it was earlier this year. We write to you as a GBTC shareholder, in support of the conversion of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC) the worlds largest publicly-traded cryptocurrency fund to an ETF. By not approving this conversion, you are not protecting me, the investor the very person you were appointed to protect. Last October, you approved futures-backed Bitcoin ETFs, but continue to reject applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs. Given that investors use both vehicles to gain exposure to the same underlying asset, Bitcoin from which both vehicles derive their prices we, as investors, should be able to choose if we would like direct or futures-based exposure to that asset. Furthermore, the discount to NAV in GBTC has been around 25%, on average, this year. This means that the price of GBTC is less than the price of Bitcoin, the asset itself. Given that GBTC has about $30bn in AUM, shareholders like me are experiencing a destruction of value of around $7.5 billion. I am writing from Kentucky with gratitude for the opportunity to express my view and with the hope that you will approve this conversion and protect the interest of investors. Sincerely, Laura and Brian Huss