SEC Won’t Appeal Grayscale Bitcoin ETF Ruling: Reports

The Securities and Exchange Commission does not plan to file a last-minute appeal challenging an August court ruling that makes it more likely crypto asset manager Grayscale will be cleared to launch a Bitcoin ETF, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources.

A federal appeals court in August ruled that the SEC had been “arbitrary and capricious” in its rejection of Grayscale’s application to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) into a spot market Bitcoin ETF. It reasoned that since the SEC had cleared Bitcoin futures ETFs for trading, it could not also reject spot market products.

The SEC has until midnight tonight to appeal the ruling.

Crucially, however, failure to file an appeal does not mean that Grayscale’s bid will be automatically approved. The court is expected to follow up with the SEC and ask the Commission to revisit Grayscale’s application. At that point, the SEC could still argue for a rejection based on different grounds.

The price of Bitcoin jumped sharply, roughly 1.3%, in the minutes following reports on the SEC’s plans to forego an appeal.