On November 17, the discount of Grayscale Investments’ Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) relative to NAV reached 42.69%. Data from yCharts show this.
According to Grayscale’s website, GBTC’s assets were valued at $10.6 billion at the time of writing.
In September, the Bitcoin Trust’s discount to NAV reached 35.18%.
The discount is due to the delay in approving application to convert the Bitcoin Trust into an ETF. CEO Michael Sonnenshein named this task a top priority.
Plans to convert GBTC into an ETF became known in April 2021.
On December 17, the SEC delayed the decision on application for converting the company’s GBTC into an ETF, filed three months earlier. In February 2022, the Commission took this step again.
On June 30, Grayscale filed suit against the regulator after the regulator’s final rejection of its filing. The company noted that the case could take one to two years to resolve.
Earlier, the firm said that the SEC’s willingness to approve a Bitcoin futures-based ETF, despite rejections of applications based on its spot variant, could violate the Administrative Procedure Act.
Editorial boards of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the CEO of Messari, Ryan Selkis criticized the regulator’s stance.
In Arcane Research, among other reasons for GBTC’s discount, they named the emergence of alternative instruments, the launch of bitcoin funds, and direct purchases of the first cryptocurrency by individual companies.
Additional pressure on quotes came from the selling of the asset by major holders such as Celsius Network and Three Arrows Capital due to liquidity problems that led to their bankruptcy.
The Blockchain Association backed Grayscale Investments in the case against the SEC. The nonprofit organization described the regulator’s refusal to convert GBTC into a Bitcoin ETF as a violation.
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