Grayscale Bitcoin Trust now an SEC-reporting company

The leading crypto-asset management firm, Grayscale Investments had filed a Registration Statement on Form 10 with the SEC on behalf of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust in November 2019. On 21 Jan, 2020, Form 10 was deemed effective, and Grayscale’s trust became the first digital currency investment vehicle to attain the status of an SEC reporting company.

The official from Grayscale stated:

According to the announcement, this designation, “marks an incredible milestone for our product, Grayscale, and the digital currency industry.” They also explained how the Trust is solely and passively invested in Bitcoin, enabling investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without the challenges of buying, storing and securing it directly.

They also recalled to May 2015, when the Trust became the first publicly traded Bitcoin investment vehicle in the world: GBTC. Further, they stated that the Trust’s private placement will be periodically available to institutional as well as accredited individual investors.

Provided the requirements under Rule 144 of the amended Securities Act of 1993 are satisfied, “accredited investors who own shares in the Trust’s private placement now have an earlier liquidity opportunity,” and the “statutory holding period of their private placement shares will be reduced from 12 to 6 months.”

Grayscale pointed out how many institutions restrict investments to instruments that are not registered with the SEC, and that a broader set of investors could now begin to consider the Trust as an investment vehicle. They also mentioned how the Trust now will file its audited financial statements as 10-Qs and 10-Ks with the SEC, in addition to their annual and quarterly reports.

“These are the same reporting standards that public companies and exchange-traded products that trade on national exchanges are held to.”

“The structure of the trust will not change,” said the post. “It will continue to not operate a redemption program, nor trade on a national securities exchange.” They also made clear that the process to classify the Trust as an SEC reporting company was voluntary, and that it should not be confused as an effort to be classified as an ETF, despite the similarities.