Grayscale makes fresh push for SEC approval to become bitcoin ETF

Grayscale makes fresh push for SEC approval to become bitcoin ETF

Grayscale has made a fresh attempt to win approval from the US securities watchdog to turn the world’s largest crypto investment vehicle into a fund that trades on major Wall Street exchanges.

The asset manager has focused on a legal detail in a bid to bolster its application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to convert its $40bn Bitcoin Trust into an exchange traded fund, according to a letter sent to the regulator.

Grayscale’s manoeuvre comes as the SEC is deliberating over whether to give the go-ahead for US exchange traded funds to hold bitcoin, rather than derivatives linked to the cryptocurrency, for the first time. The regulator has said it will make a decision regarding Grayscale’s application in early July at the latest.

Several rivals have already been rebuked in their attempts to open similar funds and Grayscale’s gambit represents one of the crypto industry’s last hopes of launching such a product in the near future. Only three other similar crypto ETFs are in the queue for approval.

The SEC has pushed back against so-called spot crypto ETFs due to concerns that the coins trade on unregulated platforms where surveillance is difficult and manipulation a consistent problem. It has approved ETFs holding crypto