- The SEC has decided not to appeal the court’s decision in the Bitcoin ETF Grayscale vs SEC case
- This means that the committee will have to reconsider its decision on the rejection of the application for secret GBTC to spot Bitcoin ETF.
The US Securities and Commission (SEC) has reportedly decided to refrain from a new legal battle with Grayscale Investments – a leading digital asset management company. According to Reuters’ sources, the report comes hours before the deadline for filing an appeal closes. This means the SEC will be forced to work with Grayscale on its spot Bitcoin ETF application.
Interestingly enough, this move by the SEC has had little to no effect on the price of the king coin: Bitcoin [BTC]. According to CoinMarketCap, at the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $26,802.61 with a market cap of over $523 billion.
Although the coin broke the $27,000 mark after the news broke, it failed to hold this ground and has left no trace of significant changes in the past hour or day. While the seven-day chart showed a decline of almost 4%.
SEC versus grayscale for a spot Bitcoin ETF
Historically, the SEC has been notorious for rejecting all applications for a spot Bitcoin ETF. And this was regardless of whether the application was submitted by a legacy fund manager. This year, however, the game changed when investment giant Blackrock filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF. This move sparked a revival of interest and several other companies also submitted their applications.
Additionally, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Grayscale vs. SEC has given the market hope of finally seeing an approved spot BTC ETF. In August 2023, the judge ruled that the SEC’s decision to reject Grayscale’s application to convert its GBTC to a spot Bitcoin ETF was “arbitrary and capricious.” The judge also noted that the SEC “recently approved trading of two Bitcoin futures funds on national exchanges, but denied approval of Grayscale’s Bitcoin fund.”
Although the move not to appeal gives new hope, the commission still reserves the right to reject the application again. However, Grayscale would again oppose such a decision in court.
Currently, aside from Grayscale’s filing, the SEC is on several Bitcoin ETF filings. This includes the applications from Blackrock, Fidelity, Valkyrie and others. The committee has already postponed the decision on these applications twice.
