Crypto news: the first trades of the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF have begun

Among the latest crypto news, there is the start of the first pre-market trading of the new Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETF on the NYSE stock exchange. 

The company is somehow a protagonist of the moment, as the approval by the SEC came mainly thanks to its success in court last August. 

Crypto news: the Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETF sees its first trades on the NYSE

The eyes of the crypto market are now focused on the trading of Bitcoin spot ETFs, officially approved just yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the USA. Approved officially only yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the USA.

Among the eleven funds issued, the one that seems to be a bit more prominent at this moment is the Exchange-Traded Fund issued by Grayscale Investments.

And indeed, just a few hours ago, the first pre-market trades of Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF were recorded on the NYSE stock exchange.

“Grayscale’s #Bitcoin ETF has just made its first pre-market trades on the NYSE!”

Crypto News: the protagonist of the moment is the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF

As we were saying, Grayscale Investments is also a bit of the protagonist of this moment of official approval of all 11 applications for the issuance of Bitcoin spot ETFs. 

This is because this decision mainly comes thanks to the success in court of the operator in the crypto asset management sector. 

And indeed, last August 2023, Grayscale won a legal battle against the US SEC, for the creation of the Bitcoin ETF. The US Court of Appeals reportedly deemed the SEC’s refusal of Grayscale’s request to issue its exchange-traded fund on BTC as “arbitrary and capricious”.

From that moment, a “ray of light” has opened up and all the other companies have pushed and made all the necessary modifications to their applications, in order to remain in line with the requirements requested by the SEC. Until we reach this moment, where the SEC has decided for approval.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, also emerged victorious in another battle against the US SEC in July 2024, which ruled that XRP is not a security. He shared his overall thoughts on the new development.

“The importance of this moment cannot be overstated. Congratulations to all those who worked to get the Bitcoin spot ETFs approved!”

Today’s news further legitimizes cryptocurrency as an asset class.

I expect this to be a further catalyst for institutional investments and adoption, which ideally will lead the industry to focus beyond primarily speculative use cases and more broadly on the real world, supporting this legitimization.”

The latest moves before official approval

Just before the official approval of bitcoin spot ETFs, Grayscale had recorded a decrease in the discount of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which reached the level of 18 months ago.

In practice, the GBTC discount had reached 5.6% on Monday, which led to the belief that expectations for the approval of its ETF were increasing, as well as the increase in Bitcoin sentiment. 

Not only that, just before yesterday, Grayscale had decided to revise its strategy to make its Bitcoin spot ETF more competitive. The new move was to reduce its management fees from 2% to 1.5%.