TL:DR Breakdown:
- Grayscale managing director says there is a growing attention for Ethereum as an asset class.
- The cryptocurrency now accounts for $1.6 billion of its entire assets under management.
The institutional-grade investment platform, Grayscale, has been seeing a whole new wave of interest for its Ethereum fund since this year. Michael Sonnenshein, the company’s managing director, disclosed this during an interview with Bloomberg last week. He mentioned that the Ethereum-first kind of investors have been increasing on the platform, as the cryptocurrency is now considered more than a coder darling asset.
The growing interest in Ethereum on Grayscale
As Sonnenshein explained, Bitcoin (BTC) grabbed several investors’ attention and remained the one-stop crypto-asset following its record-highs. However, the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), maintains the platform’s leadership status, as there has been a growing interest for both the cryptocurrency and its blockchain network. One factor pushing up the interest in Ethereum is the boom in the decentralized finance (DeFi) market, said Mike McGlone, Bloomberg’s intelligence Strategist.
In a phone interview, the managing director at Grayscale confirmed the development, saying that “over the course of 2020 we are seeing a new group of investors who are Ethereum first and in some cases Ethereum only. […] There’s a growing conviction around Ethereum as an asset class.” This is evident following the value of assets locked in its Ethereum Trust Fund.
Grayscale AUM
The investment company currently sees about $12.6 billion in its assets under management (AUM). Its Bitcoin Trust Fund accounts for the largest asset valuation at $10.4 billion. This is followed by the Ethereum Fund, which presently equals to $1.6 billion. At the end of last year, there were only 5.2 million shares in the Ethereum Trust. However, the shares have grown to 29.6 million, which indicates a growing interest in the asset.
12/04/20 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.
— Grayscale (@Grayscale) December 4, 2020
Total AUM: $12.6 billion$BTC $BCH $ETH $ETC $ZEN $LTC $XLM $XRP $ZEC pic.twitter.com/WyuqVGpB9R
