Fairfield-based Osprey Funds is suing its rival Grayscale of producing “false and misleading” advertising related to the latter”™s Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC).
According to a report in the cryptocurrency news source The Block, Osprey questioned Grayscale”™s advertisements that claimed GBTC would be converted to an exchange-traded fund (ETF), even though the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected Grayscale”™s effort to covert GBTC into an ETF.
“Grayscale launched campaign after campaign to convince participants in the markets, including their investment advisors, to engage Grayscale”™s asset management services by telling them that a conversion to an ETF was inevitable, and thus Grayscale”™s services would provide the only avenue offering benefits of such asset management services with access to an ETF structure,” Osprey said. “Grayscale knew that this message was false.”
Osprey added that Grayscale controls roughly 99.5% of the market share while charging “more than four times the asset management fee” that Osprey charges, claiming that Grayscale”™s “false” advertisements were responsible for this dominance.
A Grayscale spokeswoman called the lawsuit “frivolous” in an emailed statement and insisted that the “conversion of GBTC to an ETF is the best long-term product structure for Grayscale”™s investors, and approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States would directly benefit our industry peers.”
