Grayscale Bitcoin Trust nears 2023 highs on BlackRock ETF filing as buyers step up

Institutional buying interest in GBTC accompanies hopes that BlackRock will get the first Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States.

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BlackRock's Bitcoin (BTC) plans appear to have sparked a rally in BTC institutional investment vehicle "OG".

Data from monitoring resource CoinGlass shows that on June 17, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) nearly hit new 2023 highs.

GBTC "premium" heads below -37%

Bitcoin market sentiment showed a slight improvement late last week when news emerged that the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, had filed an application to launch a traded fund exchange (ETF) at the spot price of bitcoin.

While still not permitted in the US, a spot ETF from a solid entity such as BlackRock should have a better chance of breaking the legal deadlock, some say.

Meanwhile, however, signs of optimism beyond sentiment are becoming clearer - GBTC, long trading at a significant discount to spot BTC, is on the rise.

According to CoinGlass, this discount, or negative "premium," used to characterize GBTC's stock price, is currently -36.6%.

Although still heavily discounted, GBTC is therefore trading closer to zero than at almost any time this year. On June 13, for example, the discount was closer to -44%.

GBTC Premium vs Assets Held vs BTC /Chart USD (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

“If ETF Blackrock is approved, the real winner here will be $GBTC,” Adam Cochran, a partner at venture capital firm Cinneamhain Ventures, wrote in part. comments on Twitter this weekend.

"Because Blackrock will show the way to conversion, a...