Grayscale Investments hires ex-Alerian CEO David LaValle to head global ETF efforts

Grayscale Investments has announced on Wednesday the hiring of David LaValle, former CEO of Alerian, a leading independent index provider, as its new global head of exchange traded funds. The new hiring comes as Grayscale keeps its focus on converting its $25B Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF. Michael Sonnenshein, CEO at Grayscale Investments, said that the SEC approval of a bitcoin ETF "is a matter of when, not a matter of if." The hiring of LaValle will help push the needle for the highly anticipated debut of the first U.S. based bitcoin ETF. Presently Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC) finds itself trading -5.01%, and bitcoin (BTC-USD) is +0.36%. Further building the case for crypto advocates is the fact that U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler indicated that there's a pathway for approving a bitcoin ETF as long as issuers provide the necessary investor protections.