May. 17, 2022
Dear SEC, I am a retired military officer and now a college professor living in Colorado. I am strongly in favor of you approving the Form 19b-4 that NYSE Arca filed with you to convert Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC) – the world’s largest publicly traded crypto asset fund, with approximately $30 billion in AUM, hundreds of millions in daily trading volume, more than 850,000 investors, holding approximately 3.4% of all Bitcoins outstanding – into a Bitcoin Spot ETF. It’s clear that a spot ETF would be a much better option that GBTC, and if you really want to protect investors you should approve their spot ETF request. Since the 2017 market peak, $BTC has increased over 50%, while GBTC, which only holds BTC, has decreased over 50%. Furthermore, GBTC has traded at an approximately 25% discount to its NAV this year, which means the price of GBTC is less than the price of its underlying assets, Bitcoin. With approximately $30 billion in AUM, that results in approximately $7.5 billion of trapped value from existing U.S. investors. Protect investors and approve the spot ETF! Sincerely, Rob Brown