Michael Sonnenshine, chairman of Grayscale Investments, said in an interview with CNBC that the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) spot bitcoin-ETFs.

In early April, the regulator authorized the launch of an exchange-traded fund for the first cryptocurrency from provider Teucrium. The application complies with the provisions of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933, not the Investment Companies Act 1940.

Earlier, Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said it is the second document to provide more credible measures to protect investors.

“From the SEC perspective, products Article 40 there were various protection measures that the products did not have 33. Law. But these funds never took into account the Commission’s concerns about bitcoin and the possibility of fraud or manipulation,” said Sonnenschein.

Some of the measures include independent advice, accounting and storage rules, he said.

“For us, the question is: „when?“But it is not „if“ […]. If the SEC cannot see the same two issues – the futures ETF and the spot ETF – through the same lens, then this is actually a potential violation of the Administrative Procedure Act,” the company president added.

The SEC has yet to approve any application to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. At the same time, the agency authorized the launch of exchange-traded funds based on futures for the first cryptocurrency from VanEck, Valkyrie Investments, and ProShares.

Grayscale Investments has named the conversion of a bitcoin trust into an ETF as its top priority. The company submitted the relevant application to the regulator in October 2021. In February 2022, the SEC delayed its decision.

The company admitted that the Commission had violated the law when approving Bitcoin futures ETFs and announced that it was ready to sue the department if it refused to convert GBTC into ETFs.

As a reminder, most of the financial advisors surveyed by the Nasdaq approved investments in a spot crypto ETF.