Cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale Investments plans to file for a covered call exchange-traded fund in an effort to allow investors to generate income from options on its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, said CEO Michael Sonnenshein.

GBTC began trading as an ETF on Thursday on NYSE Arca after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved its conversion -- along with a spate of other proposals for spot bitcoin ETFs -- a day earlier.

"This should be received as a declaration of not only not just having gotten GBTC to market as a spot bitcoin ETF, but our commitment to the product's growth and the ecosystem around the product itself," Sonnenshein said in an interview.

Grayscale sued the SEC after it rejected its application to convert its existing trust into an ETF, and a federal appeals court ruled in the firm's favor in August, sparking optimism among market participants that the SEC could finally greenlight the products after a decade-long tussle. (Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)