Bitcoin went through a boring weekend, as the currency struggled to fall below the level of 19 thousand dollars and remained almost stable at 19,200 dollars, to begin the fluctuation from yesterday and continue until the moment (at the time of publishing the article) when the price of the bitcoin rose and reached the price of 19,500 dollars.
The discount in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) fund points to a possible case of waning institutional interest in the major cryptocurrency.
The GBTC Fund is currently trading at a 36.7% discount against Bitcoin spot prices, putting the fund at the biggest discount in its history.
The increasing numbers may also indicate that players are looking for other alternative vehicles for bitcoin investments, such as exchange-traded funds (ETF).
Arcane Research told in a recent statement:
There are good arguments to be made for investing in GBTC at current discounts as the fact of the discounting suggests that Wall Street is either ignoring bitcoin's opportunities or reluctant to commit to a long-term play on bitcoin.
As sentiment improves, the GBTC discount may shrink and today, GBTC is the largest bitcoin fund, managing 635,240 bitcoins, valued at around $12 billion.
This represents more than 3.3% of the circulating supply of cryptocurrencies.
Since 2015, GBTC has been trading with a positive close to 20% but it turned into a negative premium last year as the average discount over the past period was 19%.
It is worth noting that the gap formed after Purpose launched a bitcoin ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange last February and the SEC was hostile and against the spot ETF.
The authority recently rejected WisdomTree's application for a US Bitcoin ETF.
Coinciding with the repeated refusals, Grayscale has filed a lawsuit against the SEC over the conversion of GBTC into a Bitcoin ETF.
She told Grayscale that the regulatory agency treats Bitcoin ETP with particular harshness, and its assertion that it is arbitrary and volatile.
