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Grayscale’s Managing Director John Hoffman expressed optimism about the future regulatory environment for crypto ETFs. He highlighted that with 53 million Americans owning crypto and upcoming elections, the topic is gaining importance at the highest levels of government.
Grayscale Investments launched its Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC Trust) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesday. This move comes after the successful approval of the BTC Trust’s registration statement on Form 8-A and Form S-1 by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 30. Notably, the regulator approved the product’s 19b-4 form last Friday.
The new spot Bitcoin product began trading at 4 a.m. ET on Wednesday under the ticker “BTC”. The Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, often referred to as the BTC Trust, offers investors a more accessible and cost-effective way to gain exposure to Bitcoin.
BTC Trust: Details
Soon after converting its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot ETF in January, Grayscale Investments started a corporate action to distribute shares of its BTC Trust to GBTC shareholders. This strategic move aimed to create a smaller, more liquid version of GBTC, designed to appeal to a broader range of investors.
The BTC Trust maintains a 1:1 ratio with GBTC, meaning each GBTC share is exchanged for one share of the BTC Trust. Moreover, the BTC Trust features significantly lower management fees, at 0.15% compared to GBTC’s 1.5% annual fee. Interestingly, the product would be the cheapest among all the spot bitcoin ETFs.
Why Is GBTC Down by 10%?
Meanwhile, since their launch in January, the spot Bitcoin ETFs have cumulatively collected $17.69 billion in net inflow. On July 30, they recorded a net outflow of $18.3 million. In particular, GBTC has recorded a net outflow of $18.94 billion since its conversion into a spot ETF.
It is interesting to note that the community was puzzled by GBTC’s recent 11% drop. This decline is due to 10% of its value being allocated to Grayscale’s BTC Trust.
Future Regulatory Environment
In an interview on July 30, Grayscale’s Managing Director John Hoffman expressed optimism about the future regulatory environment for crypto ETFs. He highlighted that with 53 million Americans owning crypto and upcoming elections, the topic is gaining importance at the highest levels of government.
Hoffman emphasized that the existing regulatory framework needs to evolve to better accommodate digital assets, and he believes that increased clarity will soon lead to more comprehensive market options, including derivatives and structured products.
Grayscale’s latest offering is not limited to Bitcoin. The firm has also launched the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH Trust), which began trading alongside other spot Ether ETFs on July 23. Since its launch, the ETH Trust has seen a net inflow of $181.36 million as of July 30. Notably, both the Bitcoin and Ethereum mini products trade on NYSE Arca.
