Grayscale Hires Donald B. Verrilli Jr. To Legal Team To Take The Fight To SEC

Grayscale Investments, a digital currency asset manager and a subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group, has hired Donald B. Verrilli Jr., who served as the solicitor general from 2011 to 2016 under the Obama administration, to strengthen its legal team.

Verrilli will now work as an additional counsel for Grayscale, the parent company of CoinDesk which was the first to break the news of Verrilli's addition to the team. The top lawyer has represented the government’s side in several Supreme Court cases.

“It’s paramount that Grayscale has the strongest legal minds working on our application to convert GBTC to an ETF, and we are thrilled that Verrilli will join our outstanding legal team," a Grayscale spokesperson said, underlining Verrilli’s experience before the high court, including major wins defending the Affordable Care Act and legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

Grayscale filed for the conversion of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to a Bitcoin-spot Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in October 2021 and July 6 is the deadline for the financial authority's decision on the same.

"Grayscale has an unwavering commitment to converting GBTC to an ETF,” the spokesperson added. “To that end, Grayscale has been preparing for all scenarios: We have ensured that GBTC is operationally ready to convert to an ETF and have been exploring options should the SEC not allow GBTC to convert to an ETF.”

Not only Grayscale but plenty of other firms have applied for a Bitcoin spot ETF recently. However, the SEC has rejected most of them while delaying its decision on some of them. The financial authority recently rejected the application put forth by One River, an asset management firm, and delayed its decision on the application by Grayscale, WisdomTree and others.

In December 2021, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce spoke in support of Spot Bitcoin ETFs on CoinDesk TV’s flagship show, “First Mover.”

“I can’t believe we’re still talking about this as if, you know, we’re waiting for one to happen,” Peirce said at the time, adding, “We’ve issued a series of denials even recently, and those continue to use reasoning that I think was outdated at the time.”