Organize - Odaily
Author - Qin Xiaofeng
Tonight, court documents revealed that Grayscale won its case against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In June last year, the SEC rejected Grayscale’s application to transform its Bitcoin Trust GBTC into a Bitcoin spot ETF on the grounds that it was “unable to protect investors from fraud and market manipulation.” Grayscale immediately sued the SEC, and both parties held court arguments in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on March 7 this year.
After months of waiting, the case came to a tentative end tonight with Grayscales victory. Grayscale CEO Sonnenshein posted a message expressing his gratitude to the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court for its ruling in favor of Grayscale and investors for their support and encouragement. Additionally, Grayscale’s legal team is actively reviewing the court’s opinion.
Does Grayscale’s victory mean that the Bitcoin spot ETF is about to be officially launched?All parties hold very different views. Odaily summarizes them as follows:
Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran said that in response to the court decision, the SEC has three options: postpone the decision and propose new reasons for rejection; admit and approve (Grayscale ETF); request the entire judge to appeal the case (en banc appeal). However, given the rationale for the courts decision and the fact that they (the court) repeatedly pointed to the SECs failure to support any of its arguments, an en banc appeal would be a terrible decision and might just infuriate the court. So this is a huge victory.
Bloomberg TV analyst Sonali Basak said: “This does not mean that GBTC will automatically and immediately convert into an ETF. As the court said, it only means that the US SEC failed to explain why it approved the Bitcoin futures ETP and not Grayscale The proposed product (spot ETF). She added that there is still a long process to go, including a 45-day appeal period, when both parties will review the ruling, and the SEC can also request a plenary hearing. “It is unclear whether Grayscale will need to resubmit its application to convert GBTC into an ETF.”
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart commented that although Grayscale won the lawsuit, it does not mean that GBTC can be freely converted into ETFs, but it takes the conversion issue another step forward.
Chief Policy Officer, Blockchain AssociationJake ChervinskyGrayscale said that it was a huge victory for the SEC. For a full decade, the SEC rejected Bitcoin ETF spot proposals on the grounds that they were designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices. That era is now over. However, the court did not order the SEC to approve Grayscale’s ETF proposal. It only stated that the SEC’s analysis of the “fraud and manipulation” issues was wrong; now, the SEC must consider the court’s ruling and review Grayscale’s proposal again.
“What will the SEC do? One view is that the SEC will choose a different reason to reject Grayscale’s proposal and force a longer and more costly lawsuit. It is possible, and it is difficult to underestimate the SEC leadership’s interest in crypto Extreme hostility to currencies. Another view is that the SEC will point to the D.C. Circuit decision as support for its exit from the anti-ETF stance. We dont agree, but we follow the rule of law, this was said in a The most reasonable excuse for quitting a losing battle.”
He added that the SEC would also face political pressure to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF. This is not just a grayscale issue. TradFi is already ready for Bitcoin ETFs, and traditional institutions including BlackRock have successively proposed Bitcoin spot ETFs this year. The question now is, which path will the SEC choose? Do you want to make yourself more miserable? One more denial and there will be another lawsuit.
Jeremy Hogan, a partner at the law firm Hogan Hogan, believes that Grayscale’s victory has removed obstacles for traditional institutions to apply for spot ETFs and provided a legal basis. “Folks, get ready for Big Money to hit the table, for better or for worse.
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