Bitcoin trust manager Grayscale reaches $40B in assets

Grayscale Investments—the asset manager behind the world’s top bitcoin-backed (BTC) trust Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)—has reached $40 billion in assets under management.

According to a tweet sent by the company on Feb. 17, the firm now oversees $40 billion worth of assets. The vast majority of that is in the $33.1 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and $5.7 billion Grayscale Ethereum Trust. The remaining $1.2 billion is in six alt-coin trusts and the multi-asset Grayscale Digital Large cap Fund.

According to financial news outlet Finance Magnates, Grayscale Investments purchased 38 bitcoins in the last 24 hours as the total value of Grayscale’s bitcoin holding jumped above $33 billion for the first time. Shortly thereafter, the value of the firm’s assets under management breached $40 billion as bitcoin and ether crossed a price of $52,000 and $1,900 respectively.

Last month, the firm liquidated its Grayscale XRP Trust after determining that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s illegal security sales lawsuit against Ripple could make it difficult to sell assets.

Grayscale is growing rapidly as institutions buy shares of its funds as a way to get regulated exposure to crypto assets. As Modern Consensus reported in early January, singapore-registeded crypto asset manager Three Arrows Capital alone owned $1.24 worth of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust at the time.

Grayscale Investments was expanding its holdings rapidly in 2020 as well. In late September last year, the company acquired 17,100 bitcoins worth nearly $200 million at the time in under three days.

At the beginning of the current month The Miller Opportunity Trust—the hedge fund of Wall Street star Bill Miller—got the go-ahead to invest up to $330 million—15% of the total fund’s value—in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. 

Seeing all of this growth, other companies are trying to join Grayscale in raking in the profits. As Modern Consensus reported earlier this month, crypto asset lending firm BlockFi also launched its own tradable bitcoin trust, noting that it has lower fund management fees than those imposed by Grayscale Investments.