May. 10, 2022
Dear SEC, I am Amir Eliav, 33 years old, living in Los Angeles CA, a real estate investor and a realtor. I entered the labor force when interest rates on my saving account across all banks is around 0.2-0.4%. A year. Stellar performance i know. I'm reaching a point where me and my wife are thinking about buying a home to raise our kids at. With mortgage interest rates going parabolic and home prices growing 25% YoY, squeezing our buying power to the ground, buying a home is cute thought. Not going to happen. My wife is social worker, earning a decent W2 income. I'm self employed earning a decent living as well. am i going to grow my business 8% YoY just to keep up with inflation? Is my wife going to get an 8% wage increase YoY just to keep up with inflation? As far as i'm concerned, OUR inflation print is not some convoluted basket of goods, it's 25% since i want to buy a home not tomatoes. I feel i'm living through a completely manipulated monetary environment, where you can’t put the finger on who and why but you just know you are being screwed. Bitcoin is my savings account, Bitcoin is my real estate, Bitcoin is my retirement. Bitcoin is hope for me. I'm not smart enough to articulate here why Bitcoin is crucial for us to fight climate change or why digital property not controlled by a centralized entity is equally important as electricity and the internet. I will just say, i'm a single issue voter and any politician who's abrasive to Bitcoin will never get my vote. Here’s the thing- Maybe i'm right maybe i'm wrong, but this is MY DECISION. With all due respect i don’t need a government agency to "protect" me. Especially when we have laws like accredited investor or the fact that i can go to the casino down the street and gamble my life savings to oblivion. When these type of stuff are in place, it's just utterly ridiculous to not approve a spot Bitcoin ETF. So, with that being said, 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. 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, Amir Eliav