Key takeaways:
- The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF, which will now trade under the ticker code “BTC,” has filed to be registered as a new “mini” version.
- Since GBTC will also be contributing an undisclosed quantity of Bitcoin to the new trust, the filing states that the shares of the new Bitcoin trust will be distributed to current GBTC owners.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which will now trade under the ticker code “BTC,” has filed to be registered as a new “mini” version.
On March 11, the investment manager filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States. The new Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust would function separately from Grayscale’s primary GBTC fund and be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, pending clearance.
Since GBTC will also be contributing an undisclosed quantity of Bitcoin to the new trust, the filing states that the shares of the new Bitcoin trust will be distributed to current GBTC owners.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart wrote on March 12 X about the new trust, which seeks to provide GBTC investors with tax-free exposure to Bitcoin:
“There is no fee disclosed yet or what % of $GBTC will spin off but pretty sure this will be a non-taxable event for a chunk of those shares to get into a cheaper and cost-competitive product.”
Three days after Ether crossed the $4,000 threshold for the first time since December 2021, on March 11, Bitcoin established a new all-time high of $71,415 on the same day the filing was made.
VanEck, an asset management company, is offering a sponsor fee waiver for the first $1.5 billion of assets invested in its Bitcoin Trust ETF until March 31, 2025. Even as the SEC was considering applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs, ETF managers began a pricing battle over the expenses of operating their funds.
This development occurred one week after the daily trading volume of US spot Bitcoin ETFs reached a new high of $10 billion on March 5, breaking the previous record of $7.7 billion. The SEC’s continued silence about ether-based ETFs is a bad omen for any clearance by May.
