GBTC: Eyeing Discount To NAV And Handicapping Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust Lawsuit

SummaryTrading as an ETF would provide the mechanism for GBTC's market price per share to align with the holdings per share value, removing the current 35% discount.Commissioner Peirce has argued the SEC is not concerned with "legal and logical coherence" in its spot Bitcoin ETF rulings.Grayscale's major point in the lawsuit is that the SEC's disapproval order is arbitrary because their proposed spot Bitcoin ETF is being treated differently than "similarly situated" Bitcoin futures ETFs.Grayscale secondarily argues that by de facto requiring an appropriate surveillance-sharing agreement, the SEC goes beyond the statutory requirements created by Congress.The article below does not discuss the pros and cons of a general allocation to Bitcoin (BTC-USD) in the current risk-off environment. Rather, it specifically considers Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's (GBTC) appropriateness as one means of gaining exposure to the coin. Obviously the Trust is particularly interesting now because it trades at a large and widening discount to the value of its underlying Bitcoin holdings.In June the SEC disapproved Grayscale's proposed conversion of the Trust to a spot Bitcoin ETF. Trading as an ETF would have provided the mechanism for the market price per share to align with the holdings per share value, removing the current 35% discount. Following the decision, Grayscale immediately filed for review of the SEC decision with the United States Court of ...