SEC approves Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, awaiting registration statement greenlight

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved Grayscale's mini version of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) on Friday.

The agency specifically approved the 19b-4 form for the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust. The trust, under the ticker symbol "BTC," is intended to be a “spin-off” of GBTC, with new shares of the mini trust designed to be distributed to GBTC shareholders as GBTC contributes a certain amount of bitcoin to the trust, according to an S-1 filing posted in March.

"The Commission therefore finds that the Proposals, as with other ETPs that the Commission has approved are reasonably designed to promote fair disclosure of information that may be necessary to price the shares of the Trusts appropriately, to prevent trading when a reasonable degree of transparency cannot be assured, to safeguard material non-public information relating to the Trusts’ portfolios, and to ensure fair and orderly markets for the shares of the Trusts," according to an SEC document filed on Friday.

Grayscale is still waiting for the registration statement to become effective for the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, a Grayscale spokesperson said.

"Grayscale awaits the effectiveness of BTC's registration statement on Form S-1," said the spokesperson. "The approval and effectiveness of the registration statement will allow BTC to operate as US spot Bitcoin ETP alongside GBTC and others. The Grayscale team will share more information about Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust's listing date on NYSE Arca as soon as possible.”

This comes over seven months after the SEC first approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs, which have so far brought in millions of dollars. The agency also approved spot Ethereum ETFs earlier this year in a surprising move. Grayscale was approved for both a spot Ethereum ETF and a spot Bitcoin ETF.