Largest Bitcoin Fund Soars as Judges Raise Hope for Investor Payday

Grayscale Investments for years has fruitlessly sought to convert its flagship product—the world’s largest Bitcoin fund at $14 billion—into an exchange-traded fund, most recently suing the Securities and Exchange Commission for denying its application. A trio of appellate judges on Tuesday seemed to hint that its quest could bear fruit.

During oral arguments held Tuesday, judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sounded consistently skeptical of arguments made by the SEC justifying its decision to disallow the conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (ticker: GBTC) into an ETF. The SEC has already approved ETFs that hold Bitcoin futures, such as ProShares Bitcoin Strategy (BITO), and the case is about whether the SEC acted arbitrarily by denying applications for ETFs that hold Bitcoin directly.