Grayscale CEO: If GBTC gets approval it could return a ‘couple billion dollars’ to investors

Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein “can’t imagine” wherefore the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “wouldn’t want” to support Grayscale investors and instrumentality the existent plus worth to them, successful a caller podcast interview.

In an interrogation with What Bitcoin Did, a fashionable podcast hosted by Peter McCormack, connected Feb. 25, Sonnenshein explained that the SEC “violated the administrative procedures act” by denying Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) arsenic an approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded money (ETF), successful June 2022.

He explained that this enactment ensures the regulator doesn’t amusement “favoritism,” oregon enactment “arbitrary,” adding that by approving Bitcoin Futures ETF, and not approving “GBTC's conversion,” the SEC has acted “arbitrarily.”

Sonnenshein noted that erstwhile the SEC started approving the archetypal Bitcoin ETFs, Grayscale took it “as a sign” that the SEC was “actually changing their cognition to Bitcoin.”

He stated that determination is really a “couple cardinal dollars” of superior that would instantly spell close backmost into investors pockets, connected an overnight basis, arsenic the money would "bleed back" up to its nett plus value.

Sonnenshein explained that this is due to the fact that GBTC is presently trading astatine a discount to its net-asset-value (NAV), but if it were to person to an ETF, determination would “no longer” beryllium a discount oregon a premium, there’d beryllium an “arbitraged mechanism” embedded.

He reiterated that Grayscale is successful the process of “suing the SEC now,” and could person a determination challenging the SEC denial, by arsenic precocious arsenic “fall 2023.”

He besides noted that Grayscale has implicit a “million capitalist accounts" with investors each implicit the satellite counting connected the steadfast to “do the close happening for them,” and “can’t imagine” wherefore the SEC wouldn’t privation to “protect investors” and “return that value” to them.

Sonnenshein further added that helium is not going “to shy” distant from the information that Grayscale has a “commercial interest” successful this, saying that if the exertion to situation the SEC is denied, Grayscale mightiness beryllium capable to entreaty the lawsuit astatine the U.S. Supreme Court.

Related: SEC’s ‘one-dimensional’ attack is slowing Bitcoin progress: Grayscale CEO

This comes aft the SEC denied Grayscale’s application to person its $12-billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot-based Bitcoin ETF, successful Dec. 2022, basing its determination connected findings that Grayscale’s connection did not sufficiently support against fraud and manipulation.

The bureau had made akin findings successful a fig of earlier applications to make spot based BTC ETFs.