Grayscale Investments asked the U.S. securities regulator to approve all spot Bitcoin ETFs together, arguing that approving only some would lead to an unfair first-mover advantage.

Crypto investment firm Grayscale Investments penned a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, urging the regulator to treat all applications for spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) equally.

The SEC should approve spot #bitcoin ETFs to trade in the US.
What’s more, their previous approval of bitcoin futures ETFs shows that they are already in a position to do so.
Read more about the latest from our legal team: https://t.co/UC8ksqNcwy $GBTC $BTC

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) July 27, 2023

In the July 27 comment letter, Grayscale referred to the “surveillance-sharing agreement” that some of the spot Bitcoin ETF applicants, including BlackRock, VanEck, WisdomTree and Fidelity, have included in their respective proposals.

The surveillance sharing agreement (SSA) is an agreement between the listing exchange and a crypto exchange, in this case Coinbase, that shares information about market trading activity, clearing activity and customer identity. 

“But as the Commission knows, the possibility of a surveillance-sharing agreement between a listing exchange and a spot bitcoin trading venue is not a new idea,” said Grayscale in the letter, arguing that the regulator is already in a position to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF without such a provision.

The firm further stated that approving only those applications would not only reflect a sudden change in the way the SEC applies the relevant statutory standard, but also improperly grant an “unfairly discriminatory and prejudicial first-mover advantage” to these proposals.

“As a disclosure-based regulator, the SEC should not pick winners and losers; instead, the SEC should continue to provide issuers with feedback or guidance consistently and equitably,” said Grayscale.

Grayscale is currently involved in a legal battle with the SEC over the regulator’s denial of its application to convert its flagship Bitcoin fund GBTC into a spot Bitcoin ETF. (Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein gets into detail about the firm’s case against the SEC and what it will do if it loses, in this episode of Unchained.)