Grayscale, a division of Barry Silbert’s crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), is in hot water after Osprey Funds, a competitor in the market, filed a lawsuit against it for how it promoted the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) fund.
Osprey claimed in the complaint that Grayscale had engaged in “unfair and deceptive activities” and “unfair competition” with its GBTC fund and had filed it on January 30 with the Fairfield Judicial District Superior Court in Connecticut.
Individual investors can use their brokerage accounts to purchase GBTC as a financial instrument. In the US, where the Securities and Exchange Commission has not yet approved a spot bitcoin ETF, the product has filled in for one (SEC).
Once it wins approval from authorities, Grayscale publicly said that it plans to transform GBTC into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) backed by bitcoin. The case is now focused on this claim.