GBTC premium nears 2022 high as SEC faces call to approve Bitcoin ETF 'people really want'

cointelegraph.com:

Things are looking up for the United States’ largest institutional Bitcoin (BTC) product by asset holdings as pressure mounts on regulators.

Data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass confirms that as of April 21, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) is rebounding toward 2022 highs.

After a problematic year so far, GBTC has benefitted from steadying Bitcoin price action.

Bitcoin’s descent from November’s all-time highs added to an already negative “premium” on GBTC, meaning that its share price in fact traded at a discount to the Bitcoin spot price. That discount hit its deepest ever in January, when the GBTC premium nearly hit -30%.

Since then, a reversal has been underway, and as of Thursday, the premium is -21.4% — near its smallest for 2022.

The premium results from trading sentiment, and Grayscale has come under pressure over the past year, especially since the approval of the first Bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S.

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein and other industry figures have been vocal critics of regulators in Washington, who while approving futures ETF products continue to reject a Bitcoin spot-based equivalent.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which approves candidates based on laws dating from as far back as 1933, has come in for particular public scorn as other countries — most recently Australia — beat the U.S. to the launch.

Earlier this month, the SEC approved another futures-based ETF, this time based on the Securities Act of 1933 act rather than the Investment Company Act of 1940 previously used. This was a milestone, Sonnenshein told CNBC this month, as it effectively backs the SEC into a corner with fewer and fewer excuses for not breaking down the barriers to