D.C. Circuit judges pressed a federal lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday after the agency denied a bitcoin exchange trust rulemaking request in 2022. 

The dispute stems from Grayscale Investments’ hope to convert the $26 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund. Regulators denied the effort, and this appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and a handful of amicus briefs authored by some of Washington, D.C.’s biggest law firms followed.