Grayscale Finds Rising Interest in Bitcoin as it Pushes for Spot BTC ETF

The US-based major cryptoasset management firm Grayscale turned to a survey to show the rising interest in bitcoin (BTC) among investors as the company is working hard to convince the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the first bitcoin spot-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.

Today, Grayscale published the results of an online survey of 1,000 US consumers, who were involved in some form of personal investing, in August this year.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult for investors to ignore Bitcoin as its price continues to rise. The interested market for Bitcoin investment products expanded to 59% in 2021, up from just over half (55%) in 2020 and slightly more than one-third (36%) in 2019, reflecting a steady growth in interest,” Grayscale said.

Also, according to the survey, 77% of respondents said they would be more likely to invest in BTC if a spot-based ETF existed.

Source: Grayscale

Spot-based ETF differs from the existing bitcoin futures ETFs in the US, which only hold bitcoin futures contracts and not BTC itself.

Grayscale Investments has an application pending with the SEC for the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the worlds largest BTC fund, to be converted to a spot-based ETF.

As reported last week, Grayscale issued a letter to Secretary of the SEC, Vanessa Countryman, where it argued the agency is wrong to reject spot bitcoin ETFs. It claims the SEC violated the Administrative Protections Act (APA) by failing to treat the two types of bitcoin ETFs the same.

In the report and survey results published today, the company again made the case for a spot bitcoin ETF, saying it would have “a significant impact” on bitcoin investments.

“[…] the cryptocurrency community at large is not satisfied with a futures-based approach and is focused on a spot-based bitcoin ETF, which could fuel further gains,” the firm wrote.

Also, per the survey, another sign that investors are treating bitcoin as a store-of-value asset is the fact that many are choosing not to sell their position.

“More than half (55%) of investors polled invested in Bitcoin for the first time over the past 12 month period. Among this cohort, most investors continue to hold their Bitcoin today, underpinning the theory that Bitcoin is viewed as a long-term investment,” the firm noted.

Meanwhile, according to the investment manager, the interest in buying bitcoin is “strongly correlated” with the level of familiarity with the asset, which highlights a need for more education in the bitcoin space.

The high demand for bitcoin education means that financial advisors and other investment gatekeepers “should consider how they are meeting investor demands,” Grayscale suggested.

The desire to learn more about bitcoin followed the assets “performance track record” as the most important motivating factor to make an investment, according to the survey.

But although education came in second on the list of motivating factors for investors considering bitcoin, the desire has fallen slightly compared to the survey results from 2019 and 2020. This, Grayscale said, is likely due to the fact that a growing number of investors are already relatively familiar with the asset.

According to the survey, 42% of investors this year said they want to know more about bitcoin, compared with 46% in 2020 and 54% in 2019.

Some other findings of the survey:

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