Apr. 22, 2022
Dear SEC, I write to you as a GBTC shareholder, in support of the conversion of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC) — the world’s largest publicly-traded cryptocurrency fund — to an ETF. By not approving this conversion, you are not protecting me, the investor – the very person you were appointed to protect. Because Chairman Gensler must be in the pocket of the banking industry, last October, you approved futures-backed Bitcoin ETFs, but continue to reject applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs. This can only hurt the price of Bitcoin, which is exactly what Gensler and the bankers want. Gensler has not put a wash rule in place for Crypto, which causes the price of Bitcoin and other Cryptos to fluctuate wildly from traders playing games. The only reason why Gensler would not implement a wash sale rule for Bitcoin is to keep the price volatile, much to the delight of his buddies in the banking industry. Given that investors use both vehicles to gain exposure to the same underlying asset, Bitcoin—from which both vehicles derive their prices—we, as investors, should be able to choose if we’d like direct or futures-based exposure to that asset. Furthermore, the discount to NAV in GBTC has been around 25%, on average, this year. This means that the price of GBTC is less than the price of Bitcoin, the asset itself. Given that GBTC has about $30bn in AUM, shareholders like me are experiencing a destruction of value of around $7.5 billion. If Gensler is not going to protect us Crypto investors, he should resign immediately. I’m writing from New Jersey, with gratitude for the opportunity to express my view of how Gensler and his cronies are hurting my investment and with the hope that you will approve this conversion of GBTC to a spot ETF, implement the wash sale rule, and protect the interest of all Bitcoin investors. Sincerely, Mark Cipolloni