Can someone explain to me GBTC owns X number of BTC, they provide X shares of BTC which trade at 2X btc price.
How does GBTC impact in any way the market price of BTC, they don't buy more BTC, do they have plans to add to their BTC holdings?
I get that over a 20 year period GBTC would be nice from a tax perspective, but other than that who cares......? why is GBTC even interesting for broader BTC world?
As far as I understand it, GBTC is interesting because it is the first "BTC tracking" security on public markets (meaning that anyone can theoretically add BTC to their IRA, Pension fund etc).
That being said, it has been a pretty amateur-hour debut - with low volume, high spreads and a price that is 2x the underlying value (each share of GBTC is backed by .1 BTC). The only way that GBTC can get more Bitcoin into the fund is if accredited investors buy GBTC shares directly from the company that manages the fund. The only way that more GBTC shares can make it to the Over-The-Counter market where it trades is for the shares to be held by these accredited investors for at least 12 months, then deposited with their broker and traded.
It seems that there exists a ridiculous arbitrage for those who hold GBTC shares that are 12 months or older (sell for $49 - $490 per BTC effectively - then buy more GBTC shares directly from the corporation @ roughly 24.30 + fees). Yet, no one appears to be taking advantage of this for some reason (perhaps there are not enough 12 month old Holders)...
If this was a regular ETF, the manager would buy/sell a large pool of BTC to accommodate the inflow of $ as people buy and cell the ETF (just like any ETF).
