On the 5th, Grayscale, a digital asset manager in the United States, announced through a blog that it is 100% committed to converting its flagship product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), to the Bitcoin Exchange Fund (ETF).
Launched in 2013, GBTC is currently one of the largest Bitcoin indirect investment products in the world. Since March of last year, institutional investors’ interest in bitcoin has surged, and as of December 2020, it has gained explosive popularity, with an operating amount of $16.61 billion. In December of last year, there was a premium of over 35% at one time. However, from the beginning of February this year, as its popularity declined, it is being sold at a price that is more than 10% off the bitcoin market price.
On this day, Grayscale’s declaration of commitment to Bitcoin ETF came from this background. Given that the financial industry’s awareness of bitcoin has improved so that large institutional investors such as Black Rock and Goldman Sachs are making direct investments, it seems that the view that demand for GBTC, an indirect investment product, is unlikely to improve. . Grayscale said on the day that “even though the timing of the transition from GBTC to Bitcoin ETF depends on the decision of the regulatory authorities, we will do our best to convert the ETF.”
Grayscale previously submitted a Bitcoin ETF application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2016, but after the SEC did not accept the application for about a year, it withdrew the ETF application by itself. They said, “In the past, I withdrew my application because I thought the regulators’ perception of digital assets was not positive enough, but now I am confident.”
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