SEC Approves Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust for Trading on NYSE Arca

Grayscale will need to wait for final regulatory approval on its registration filing before the fund can be listed.

• The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Grayscale’s new spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) – Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC) – for listing on the New York Stock Exchange’s (NYSE) Arca electronic trading platform, according to a July 26 filing.
• This approval marks an important milestone for Grayscale, which announced plans on July 19 to spin off a portion of its flagship Bitcoin fund, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), into the new Mini Trust.
• Grayscale is excited to announce that the SEC has approved NYES Arca’s Form 19b-4 application to list and trade shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (proposed ticker: BTC).

At 0.15%, management fees for the Mini Trust are some 10 times lower than those of Grayscale’s older GBTC fund, which charges an annual fee equal to 1.5% of assets under management (AUM).

On July 31, Grayscale will allocate 10% of the spot Bitcoin held by GTBC to the Mini Trust. Current GBTC shareholders will receive shares in the Mini Trust in direct proportion to the shares they hold in GBTC. As a result of the spinoff, GBTC holders will retain the same amount of spot BTC as before, but across two different funds.

Grayscale also announced a similar move with its Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) ETF on July 8, with existing ETHE shareholders receiving proportional distributions of shares in its new Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH).

Both Grayscale’s GBTC and ETHE funds are among the longest-running spot BTC and Ethereum funds in the United States, originally launching in 2013 and 2017, respectively. The GBTC fund holds upwards of $17 billion in assets.

According to an individual familiar with the situation, the distribution will provide existing shareholders with a tax-advantaged way to transition out of the legacy fund and into the new ETF.