Credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVICBy Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Grayscale Investments, the world's largest digital currency asset manager with assets of roughly $2.7 billion, said on Tuesday it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement on Form 10 for its bitcoin fund, a move aimed at broadening its investor base.
Its bitcoin fund called Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has assets of about $2.175 billion, the company said, and it trades on OTCQX, an over-the-counter marketplace.
This is a voluntary filing that is subject to SEC review, said Michael Sonnenshein, Grayscale managing director.
"We filed a FORM 10 and the SEC can of course have comments, or questions, or they can ask us to expand on certain aspects of the document, but if they do not, it's typically goes effective after 60 days from the time is filed," Sonnenshein told Reuters.
If deemed effective, GBTC, he said, would become the first digital currency investment vehicle to attain the status of a reporting company by the SEC.
With the filing, Grayscale hopes to attract more investors to its dedicated bitcoin fund.
"This would open up GBTC to a larger pool of investors who would otherwise not be allowed to trade or invest in products that are not SEC-reporting," Sonnenshein said.
Further, the filing, if deemed effective, would allow investors who previously purchased GBTC shares in a private placement to sell their shares in the market. With the filing, the investors could sell their GBTC shares after six months, instead of the mandatory holding period of one year.
Aside from GBTC, Grayscale has nine other digital currency products.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
((gertrude.chavez@thomsonreuters.com; 646-223-6322; Reuters Messaging: gertrude.chavez.reuters.com@reuters.net))
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