Jun. 07, 2022
Dear SEC,
I'm a 29 year old software engineer living in NYC. I am strongly against approving the Form 19b-4 that NYSE Arca filed with you to convert Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC) into a Bitcoin Spot ETF. The crypto space is dangerously unregulated and extremely volatile -- average, unsophisticated retail investors would suffer from adding it to their portfolios. Crypto companies like Grayscale know this -- one need only look at the countless ads they ran during the Super Bowl begging for dumb money ("You don't have to know how it works!") to know that there is something foul at play. Grayscale et al. are trying to prop up the crypto bubble, giving them further runway to cash out their gains at the expense of the unsuspecting retail investors who buy their ETF hoping to benefit from the gold rush (and that's before considering the systemic risk that unaudited "stable"-coins like USDT pose to the ecosystem).
There's no rush to approve this ETF -- let the space mature, let regulations catch up with it. If there's still latent demand for a Bitcoin ETF in a few years (that is, if the crypto house of cards survives), approve it then. In the meantime, spare the retail investors who have not yet stumbled into crypto the misery of their first (and likely last) encounter with the space.
Best,
Amith