SEC met with Grayscale and seven other spot Bitcoin ETF applicants in late November

SEC met with Grayscale and seven other spot Bitcoin ETF applicants in late November

Dec. 1, 2023

By Mike Dalton

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has recently disclosed meetings with several asset managers regarding their proposed spot Bitcoin ETFs.

On Nov. 29, the SEC said that its Division of Trading and Markets members met with several Grayscale employees and the law firm Davis Polk on the same day. Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein was among those in attendance.

The SEC held meetings with Grayscale on three other dates starting in 2022, the most recent of which occurred last month on November 20, 2023. Two additional sessions involved members of Grayscale’s custody partner, Coinbase.

Those meetings concerned a proposed rule change that would allow NYSE Arca to list and trade Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares. Grayscale plans to convert GBTC to a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

SEC also met with BlackRock and others

The SEC held talks with other asset managers last month. Notably, it met with BlackRock regarding its proposed iShares spot Bitcoin ETF on Nov. 28 and Nov. 20. Attachments show that both BlackRock discussions concerned comparisons between in-kind and cash redemption models, which will determine whether some ETF participants transact with cryptocurrency or cash.