According to a job post made by digital asset manager Grayscale, it is looking to strengthen its workforce with some important hires that are focused on crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The company is looking for a product development specialist, a sales director, an ETF Compliance Officer, a financial reporting manager, along with five other important roles that were highlighted on their career page. They are also searching for an ETF Market Maker Relationship Manager who will be responsible for developing and maintaining relationships for Grayscale’s ETF with Market Makers (MM). The successful candidate will also be responsible for creating different avenues of expanding its ETF products.
While it hasn’t made any official filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), there is a possibility that Grayscale might be planning to introduce a Bitcoin ETF. Currently, the company has a total of $42.1 billion in assets under management (AUM). Institutional investors are given an opportunity of indirect exposure by Grayscale to highly volatile assets without directly having to worry about purchasing, storing and protecting digital currencies. The digital asset manager has become a clear favorite of Wall Street companies and has turned out to be quite successful. Thanks to its digital assets trust funds, which currently offer Ethereum and Bitcoin, investors are able to hold a small portion of the leading crypto-assets per share.
With its investment model, customers are able to either buy crypto assets or subscribe on the open market. Even if Grayscale is gearing up to introduce another digital product in the market, there is a chance that the SEC might create some issues. Time and again, VanEck Investment firm has tried to get the approval of the SEC for offering a Bitcoin ETF product as part of a ‘basket’ of securities, but it hasn’t been able to get it. Likewise, other investment companies have also made similar attempts, but the regulatory agency has given them a negative response.
So far, the SEC has rejected a total of nine Bitcoin ETF proposals. According to the regulatory agency, these ETFs will not have enough oversight because they are traded predominantly on unregulated exchanges. This will only result in price manipulation of the asset class, which is already highly volatile. Hester Pierce, the SEC Commissioner, does not feel the same and believes that ETFs can deliver a strong performance on virtual assets, as they do on bonds and regular stocks. Canada apparently shares the same opinion because they are moving ahead with their digital assets adoption program.
The launch of the first Bitcoin ETF globally was recently approved by the US neighbor. On February 19th, Purpose Bitcoin ETF was listed in Ontario on the Toronto Stock Exchange and it has become a resounding success. During the first hour of trading, the ETF managed to make $80 million and its trading volume at the end of the day was $165 million. Less than a month after its launch, the Canadian ETF has a value of $836 million. The Chicago Board of Exchange has been inspired by this success, as they have filed with the SEC for listing VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF.
