{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Scoop","title":"Policy Scoop with Aislinn Keely: Grayscale CLO on taking their bitcoin ETF rejection to the courts","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1836,"description":"The US has yet to see a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) reach the market, but when a futures-based product got the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year, issuers were hopeful.\nSome thought it signified the regulator becoming more comfortable with crypto products and a spot ETF could be on the horizon. But since then, the SEC continued to shoot down application after application on the basis that there aren't sufficient mechanisms to prevent price manipulation in the spot market.\nGrayscale, which has long desired to convert its flagship GBTC product into an ETF, took issue with this. During the SEC's continued extensions on its application, and after a series of rejections of other similar applications, the firm sent a letter saying the regulator could be violating its own procedures by approving a futures product but refusing to allow a spot-based product. The firm argued that futures are priced based on the underlying spot market, meaning any price manipulation in the spot market would affect futures products.\nThe idea is if the regulator is comfortable with futures, it should be comfortable with a spot-based product.\nBut Grayscale, too, received a rejection weeks later, spurring it to mount a legal challenge in the DC Court of Appeals. Now, it's gearing up to submit its first brief in the case, detailing its qualms with the SEC's rejection of its application.\nIn this week's episode of Policy Scoop, Aislinn Keely sat down with Grayscale's Chief Legal Officer, Craig Salm, to take an in-depth look at the firm's argument.\n\"It wasn't a decision that we made lightly, and during the course of that comment letter period, we had a couple of meetings with the Commission to try to work through their questions and the issues presented, lay out the arguments and reasoning why we felt that if they were okay with futures, they should now be okay with spot,\" said Salm.\n\nEpisode 78 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/kC6kzNjgr18dm0FmBfV_f9xccAkjj-QXoCJmVNlNtrU/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8xZmIz/N2E5MmRmMzJjOTU3/OTNhYjJkYzcxZTlj/MTU2Yi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}