Grayscale Hires Obama’s Former Supreme Court Lawyer to Fight the SEC in Court

A prominent crypto asset manager, Grayscale, has hired a key figure from the Obama administration’s Justice Department. Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the new legal counsel, formerly served as the solicitor general under President Barack Obama. The position is a Department of Justice appointment representing the United States government in Supreme Court disputes. Grayscale’s VP of communications, Jennifer Rosenthal, announced the hire on Twitter on June 7, stating the company’s “unwavering dedication to turning $GBTC to an ETF.” .@Grayscale has an unwavering commitment to converting $GBTC to an #ETF. — Jennifer Rosenthal (@jenn_rosenthal) June 7, 2022 Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) is a premium-priced investment instrument that monitors the performance of Bitcoin. The firm has been battling the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a long time to obtain the regulator to accept the trust’s conversion to an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The SEC has repeatedly rejected petitions to create spot Bitcoin ETFs, claiming that any market regulator does not regulate the underlying spot markets. However, in October, the commission began allowing Bitcoin futures ETFs to trade. Grayscale’s move comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission prepares to issue a judgment on Grayscale’s application to convert GBTC to a spot bitcoin ETF on July 6. In October 2021, the company applied for the conversion for the fir...