Bitcoin (BTC) plans by BlackRock appear to have sparked a rally in the “OG” institutional BTC investment vehicle.
Data from monitoring resource CoinGlass shows that on June 17, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) almost hit new 2023 highs.
GBTC “premium” heads below -37%
Bitcoin market sentiment showed a modest improvement late last week as news emerged that the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, had filed to launch a Bitcoin spot price exchange-traded fund (ETF).
While still not allowed in the United States, a spot ETF from a stalwart entity such as BlackRock should have better chances of breaking the legal impasse, some say.
In the meantime, however, signs of optimism beyond sentiment are becoming clearer — GBTC, long trading at a major discount to BTC spot, is on the way up.
According to CoinGlass, that discount, or a negative “premium,” used to characterize GBTC share prices, is currently at -36.6%.
While still heavily discounted, GBTC thus trades closer to zero than at almost any time this year. On June 13, for example, the discount was closer to -44%.
“If the Blackrock ETF does get approved, the real winner here is going to be $GBTC,” Adam Cochran, a partner at venture capital firm Cinneamhain Ventures, wrote in part of Twitter commentary at the weekend.
“Because Blackrock will show the path to conversion, and GBTC’s 40%+ discount will resolve on top of industry growth.”
Cochran continued that he thought BlackRock’s offering has “good odds” of getting U.S. regulatory approval.
“Very different structure than other efforts by a behemoth who doesn’t lose. ‘30 act redeemable trust w/ redemptions (unlike GBTC) + proposed rule change filing. They came to play,” he added.
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The BlackRock move is already shrouded in controversy of its own, as market commentators spar over whether it is in fact an ETF at all.
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Some argue that it will simply be a similar Trust to GBTC, while others, including Cochran, adopt a more nuanced view.
On the ETF vs Trust debate – plenty of ETFs have alt structures.
This is an ETF as a redeemable trust not like GBTC.
The Trust component is basically what let’s them list shares that represent X amount of BTC since it’s not processing units of BTC directly at a clearinghouse.
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) June 16, 2023
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