By Shelly Melancon (Switzerland)
One of Grayscale’s top executives has revealed that the firm could turn its widely popular GBTC into an ETF by the middle of next year. The executive, David Lavalle, made this known during his speech at a MarketWatch-organized event on Wednesday. Lavalle is convinced that the US financial watchdog will grant the ETF approval within the next nine months.
Grayscale’s Timing For An ETF Approval
Despite running a widely recognized BTC investment product (the GBTC), the firm remains resolute in its decision to switch to an ETF. Lavalle opined that this week’s proposal submission was a perfect time. He added that “now would be a time for the SEC to consider approvals for spot-based products since they are no longer interested in btc futures products.”
Ideally, the US SEC usually takes up to 8 months to analyze ETF applications. Hence, Lavalle may be right about a possible approval by July 2022. The US SEC created history by approving BTC futures-based ETFs this month. But Grayscale and others still strongly desire that the US SEC approve BTC spot-based ETFs. Various metrics indicate that the total Grayscale funds are now at about $53.2B, while its assets under management reached $38.9B as of this writing.
Hopes May Be Dashed
Despite various criticisms of the futures-based products, various analysts still believe that different spot ETFs will exist from next month. An ex-director at BitMEX (a derivative trading platform), Arthus Hayes, delivered a harsh remark on the whole crypto circle earlier in the week.
Also read:Part of Hayes’ blog post says, “the GBTC already poses as a pseudo-ETF because of the huge amount in its aum. Hence, a capital injection into the system is better than switching the aum between two tracker products.” The US SEC had rejected multiple proposals for an ETF launch.
Crypto Mining Can Make Kazakhstan $1.5B Richer In 5 Years
Data published by Kazakhstan’s blockchain and data center association (NABDC) revealed that regulated crypto mining currently generates about $235m annually. Hence, it won’t be inappropriate to suggest that the government can earn over $1.5B in revenue over the next half a decade.
One of the top media outlets in the nation, Kapital.Kz, quoted the NABDC president saying, “the estimate is based on companies legally recognized by the mining industry. The figure might double if unlicensed miners (popularly called ‘grey miners’) are considered.”
The association urged the authorities to clamp down on unlicensed miners to prevent cases of insufficient power shortage. The association had earlier carried out a survey about electricity consumption and crypto mining. The results of the survey showed that these unlicensed miners consume at least 500mw power monthly.
Thus, it was no surprise when the country’s minister for energy submitted a proposal to the legislature suggesting that the authorities restrict crypto miners from exceeding a certain amount of electricity monthly. Following China’s crackdown on crypto miners, Kazakhstan is now the second-highest contributor to the global BTC mining hash rate, with their contribution estimated at 18.20%.
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