Grayscale Hires Global Head Of ETFs, Says It Is 100% Committed To Converting Its Largest Bitcoin Fund

Grayscale Investments plans to convert its largest fund – the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust GBTC – to a Bitcoin BTC/USD exchange-traded fund, despite the unfavorable odds prevailing in the market.

What Happened: In an announcement on Wednesday, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein said, "Grayscale is 100% committed to converting our investment products, including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), into ETFs” while announcing the appointment of a Global Head of ETFs.

David LaValle, the newly appointed senior managing director, and ETF head, will report directly to Sonnenshein.

“Dave is a pioneering leader in the ETF space with expertise spanning critical components of the ETF ecosystem, including product development, distribution, capital markets, trading, and regulation,” said the Grayscale CEO.

Before joining Grayscale, LaValle served as CEO of Alerian and S-Network Global Indexes and held several positions leading ETF strategy at State Street, SPDR ETF Capital Markets, and Nasdaq’s ETP listing and trading businesses.

“Grayscale is an unrivaled leader in the digital asset space and I am eager to work with the team to meet investor demand for single-asset trusts and diversified funds while developing the future of digital currency-based ETFs,” said LaValle.

What Else: LaValle seemed to echo the sentiments of other proponents of the crypto space who believe that Grayscale will have the best shot at getting an ETF approved.

“As one of the more established providers, it's likely Grayscale will have a better path forward than others, but ultimately it will depend on the quality of their filing. Having highly trusted, institutional players, like BNY Mellon, as part of their offering will only help,” Doug Schwenk, chief executive officer of Digital Asset Research, told Benzinga last month.

Price Action: At press time, the market-leading digital asset Bitcoin BTC/USD was trading at $39,779, gaining 2.34% over the past 24-hours.