It is racing with the likes of Fidelity Investments for first-mover advantage as conviction grows that the SEC will relent after years of rejected applications.
Bitcoin rose for a seventh straight day on Wednesday morning, hitting the highest on record and trading at about US$63,900 as of 6:12 a.m.
Whether Gary Gensler, the nominee to be next SEC chairman, will prove more open-minded toward a Bitcoin ETF than his predecessor Jay Clayton remains unclear.
That makes GBTC vulnerable to dislocations like its monster premium at the end of 2020 relative to the Bitcoin it held, or the record discount it swung to earlier this year.
Grayscale Investments LLC, the firm behind GBTC, has said it is “100 per cent committed” to converting GBTC into an ETF.
The regulator has now acknowledged applications from VanEck Associates Corp.