Grayscale has applied to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to register a new “mini” variant of its exchange-traded fund (ETF), Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), under the symbol “BTC.”
On March 11, the investment manager filed Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States. Establishing the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust would function autonomously from Grayscale’s primary GBTC fund, contingent upon receiving approval to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
The filing indicates that already-existing GBTC shareholders will receive shares of the new Bitcoin trust in addition to an unspecified quantity of Bitcoin that GBTC will contribute to the new trust.
The new trust seeks to provide GBTC investors with tax-free exposure to Bitcoin, according to a Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart X post dated March 12:
“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.”
ETFs are in Spotlight
The filing coincided with the day Bitcoin surpassed $71,415 in value on March 11, 2021, and three days after Ether surpassed $4,000 for the first time since December 2021.
Asset manager VanEck declared that, starting on March 31, 2025, it will waive all sponsor fees for the initial $1.5 billion of funds invested in its Bitcoin Trust ETF after the fund reaches its peak value.
The development occurred one week after on March 5, daily trading volume for spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States surpassed the previous week’s record of $7.7 billion and reached $10 billion.
The SEC’s continued reticence regarding Ether-based ETFs is a deterrent to their possible approval by May. Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, stated he had reduced the likelihood of Ether ETF approval to 35%. What he said was:
“The main thing is the fact that we’re 73 days from the final deadline, and there’s been no contact or comments from the SEC to the issuers. That’s not a good sign.”