SEC Chair says Grayscale’s court judgement impacted spot Bitcoin ETF approval decision

The Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) – Gary Gensler – has given a statement on the approval of all 11 spot Bitcoin ETF applications. All the applications were approved on an accelerated basis minutes ago and all of them are expected to begin trading tomorrow.

Notably, in his statement, Gensler stated that, unlike previous rejections, there were some factors that resulted in the approval of all spot Bitcoin ETFs. A mention of the SEC versus Grayscale was made in the statement, hinting at the influence of the case on the approval decision. The statement read,

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that the Commission failed to adequately explain its reasoning in disapproving the listing and trading of Grayscale’s proposed ETP (…) Based on these circumstances and those discussed more fully in the approval order, I feel the most sustainable path forward is to approve the listing and trading of these spot bitcoin ETP shares.”

Grayscale – the American digital currency asset management firm – had taken the commission to court after it rejected its appeal to convert its GBTC to a spot Bitcoin ETF. After a heated court battle, the court ruled that the commission did not have proper grounds for its rejection and the judge asked the commission to revisit its decision.

The story is still developing.