May. 10, 2022
Dear SEC, I am mid-40’s investor from Indiana that's mostly self-educated in both investing and Bitcoin. I’ve spent a lot of time in the past couple of years learning about both topics. I am in favor of approving the Form 19b-4 that NYSE Arca filed with you to convert Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC) into a Bitcoin Spot ETF for the following reasons: GBTC has traded at an approximately 25% discount to its NAV, which means the price of GBTC is less than the price of its underlying assets, Bitcoin. As a holder of GBTC I believe this artificially driving down the value of my investment. I know many people that would like to invest in Bitcoin, but don’t have an easy method to do so. It seems that the average person has basically been precluded from investing in this asset class. You have to either be financially or technically advanced to access it, which seems unfair. There are few, if any, ways to get exposure to Bitcoin through most retirement accounts, and this typically requires investment through correlated products (GBTC, MSTR, Mining Companies, etc.) vs direct exposure to the actual asset. Spot trading, self custody, and crypto exchanges are too complicated for the average person and the consequences for not being technically savvy (hardware wallets, 2FA account authorization, etc.) can result in loss of all your investment. Most people don’t understand futures and rightfully stay away from what they don’t understand. The decision to approve a futures ETF but not a spot ETF seems logically inconsistent. I understand that the SEC is looking to protect investors, but it seems to be doing the opposite in this case by forcing the average investor to choose between venturing into investment products and technology that they don’t understand, or not obtaining exposure to a new asset class that, while volatile (that’s a relative term these days) has a lot of room for growth. How is this helping? Thanks for your consideration.