Jun. 27, 2022
Dear SEC, I am Sheri Kaiserman, former Head of Equities at Wedbush Securities, and current board memeber of Wedbush Financial Services. I am now living in Knoxville, TN, and have been continuing to help educate people in my community about Bitcoin. 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. Grayscale has a long track record of respecting the regulatory system and managing regulated products within that framework. GBTC, its longest standing SEC reporting fund, would be the ideal bitcoin spot product to receive approval. In full disclosure, I am a long standing holder of GBTC, as well as bitcoin itself, but there is a very large and growing number of investors who feel more comfortable having exposure to bitcoin through something familiar they can access in the stock market. These investors are being penalised and not only have to deal with the volatility in the price of bitcoin itself, but the continued volatility of the discount GBTC has been afforded in its current state. Sincerely, Sheri Kaiserman