BIT Poised to Become Publicly Traded Bitcoin Fund
Fund has been racing against rival offering from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Investment Trust is poised to become the first publicly traded bitcoin fund, with approval and assignment of a ticker symbol by the financial industry’s main self-regulatory body paving the way for trading on an electronic platform operated by OTC Markets Group .
The BIT, which was first launched in 2013 as a private fund for accredited investors with annual incomes greater than $200,000 or assets of more than $1 million, has been racing against a rival offering by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, best known for their lawsuit against Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg .
While the competing Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust is going through a lengthy Securities and Exchange Commission process to register a formal exchange-traded fund, the BIT has taken a backdoor route to public listing. By exploiting a rule that allows holders of a private fund to sell their shares publicly after a 12-month lockup period and completing a less arduous approval process with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, some of those long-held shares in BIT should soon be available to investors of any income or wealth bracket. The BIT is sponsored by Grayscale Investments, a unit of Mr. Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, which he established last year to hold the digital currency interests of his broker-dealer SecondMarket Inc.
The creation of a publicly traded bitcoin investment vehicle is seen as an important milestone for the digital currency’s bid for mainstream acceptance. Bitcoin advocates hope that regulated instruments will encourage a wider investment base as investors will no longer need to own bitcoin directly, which can expose them to hacking risks. Those same enthusiasts hope that more liquid trading will help smooth bitcoin’s notoriously volatile price and thus make the digital currency more appealing for online payments and value transfers.
Neither Tyler nor Cameron Winklevoss was immediately available for comment. In the past they have argued that their offering will be superior to the Digital Currency Group’s because investors will want the full imprimatur of the SEC before buying an ETF-like vehicle. Without SEC approval, Mr. Silbert’s fund can’t be formally classified as an ETF, but once existing shares are offered publicly it will function very much like one.
As of Sunday, BIT shares were being cited under the temporary ticker symbol BTCV on OTC Markets’ “pink sheets” site, which includes over-the-counter offerings from companies with limited information disclosure. Price quotes are being supplied by Merriman Capital, which has been given a 30-day exclusive status to function as the fund’s initial market maker.
Mr. Silbert said Finra granted its request for a permanent ticker symbol, GBTC, and that “is expected to be effective shortly.” He said Grayscale is also separately “working through the approval process to enable the BIT’s shares to be quoted under the Alternative Reporting Standards on OTCQX, the top marketplace operated by OTC Markets Group.” That top-tier marketplace holds issuers to significantly higher standards of disclosure than is required for its pink sheet listings.
It is unclear how much secondary trading there will be in the BIT’s publicly listed shares. Any new shares, which are generated whenever Grayscale purchases bitcoins, can be sold only to wealthy, accredited investors. The size of the secondary market float will depend on how many early investors take advantage of the expiry of the lockup period to sell.
In a statement, the Digital Currency Group said, “Although we have been assigned a ticker symbol, no assurances can be given as to when or if such trading will commence, or that an active public secondary market for BIT shares will develop or be maintained.”
Many investors who purchased their shares at the BIT’s launch in the fall of 2013, when bitcoin’s price was around $100, have an incentive to sell. Even though bitcoin’s price is well down from its peak around $1,150 in early December of that year, at the current $247 price quoted by news site Coindesk, those early investors have a chance to realize a healthy profit. The Digital Currency Group is also allowed to offer a limited amount of its proprietary shares to the public, which would encourage the development of the secondary market.
Each share of BIT is worth approximately one-tenth of a bitcoin. As of Friday, the trust’s net asset value stood at $24.43 per share.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-investment-trust-gets-finras-ok-to-become-public-bitcoin-fund-1425242094
