Everything you wanted to know about Grayscale BTC Trust but were afraid to ask!

Grayscale Presents the article " Is It Better Than Bitcoin? Investors are Finding a New Gold Mine", which presents a comparison of investments in BTC and other assets on the example of 2021, as well as a table of profitability when investing in Grayscale funds and ETFs.. For example, this year alone, Grayscale Ethereum Classic has grown by almost 1000%, and trust in Ethereum has grown by 343%. The author emphasizes that bitcoin shows a phenomenal return on the result, but it is also not the only investment tool. https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-funds/etfs/bitcoin-price-better-than-investors-find-a-new-gold-mine/

Quote from: https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1433792400875573284

Quote from: Daltonik on September 03, 2021, 05:37:30 PM

Quote from: https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1433792400875573284

Pumping shitcoins.. fuck those twats..

I still send you an smerit Daltonik, even though I would have felt better if you would have mentioned some context in terms of the bullshit of those dipshits pumping shitcoins.. just for context. #justsaying...

Just a small article on yahoo finance. Grayscale's crypto asset trusts are currently larger than the Bahraini economy at $47 billion, according to the latest report. Fast growing NTF markets have driven the price of ETH up nearly 100% over the past six weeks, making Ethereum the second largest asset in the portfolio, Grayscale currently holds 3,000,000 ETH or more than $11 billion.
As a result, Grayscale made a $3 billion profit during the recent Ethereum price hike. BTC remains the backbone of the investment holdings in Grayscale, with $32 billion under management. It is the largest collection of institutional BTC spot positions in the world, and accounts for about 3% of the global circulating supply, according to Grayscale's asset structure article. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/grayscale-now-bigger-economy-bahrain-151549265.html

And also Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein on the Squawk Box show talks about Bitcoin ETFs, the SEC and the introduction of bitcoin in El Salvador:

Quote from: https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/1435193442368475137

After the recognition of bitcoin by El Salvador, similar plans are also being discussed in other countries: Paraguay, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico https://twitter.com/APompliano/status/1402294986352250891 . I think that's why CEO Michael Sonnenshein in an interview with yahoo finance talks about the further spread of the recognition of bitcoin as a means of payment after El Salvador "I think that the only fair criticism of the deployment in El Salvador at the moment is that it happened quickly," says Michael Sonnenshein. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/where-bitcoin-may-become-legal-tender-next-grayscale-investments-ceo-103527930.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Quote from: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/where-bitcoin-may-become-legal-tender-next-grayscale-investments-ceo-103527930.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Yesterday I heard a very interesting Space talk over Twitter.

I was in my car, so I wasn't in the ideal setting to give it the right attention (also, I am not English mother tongue, so a little bit of a linguistic barrier).

Can anyone of you find the recording of this Twitter Space?

This is gold? You meant, this is bitcoin?

BCHG, ETCG, and LTCN have received the status of SEC regulated trusts. The decision will reduce the time for investors to hold shares of these products before selling them from 12 to six months. "This is what our investors really expected and deserve" commented Mike Sonnenstein, CEO of the company. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2021/09/10/grayscale-paves-the-way-for-ethereum-classic-bitcoin-cash-and-litecoin-etfs-while-the-fate-of-bitcoins-first-lies-in-the-balance/?sh=1a92ba5cde54

Ark is going to dump GBTC?

https://twitter.com/ericbalchunas/status/1436436854606372868?s=21

I doubt it. And I tweeted to the author, asking for more details.

Basically I see the discount disappearing if GBTC get converted into an ETF.
At the moment GBTC is trading at a 14% discount to NAV. The cost of holding GBTC is 200 bps p.a., this means that betting on ETF conversion on 14%/2% =7 years. If you thing that GBTC is going to be converted into an ETF before 7 years you will end up losing money. This calculation imply also a 0 fee for the alternative, that is a false assumption.
The true formula would be:

Code:

NAV discount/(GBTC fee-Other fund fee)

Bear in mind even hodling real BTC has a cost (custodian fee).

Grayscale does not leave attention to such things as fashion, so they will make their debut at NYFW in the fashion house ESSENCE, presenting their luxury fashion house Grayscale. Designer B.J.Gray presented the Grayscale SS2022 collection on the catwalk. The entire collection is presented and available for order on their website https://grayscaleic.com/collections

https://www.essence.com/fashion/essence-fashion-house/grayscale-ss2022-runway-nyfw-essence-fashion-house/#1097290

Quote from: https://grayscaleic.com/

September. 13, 2021 asset management company Grayscale Investments, and financial technology company iCapital Network today announced a partnership.This partnership connects more than 6,700 iCapital network consultants serving wealthy clients with Grayscale's experience in the field of cryptocurrencies. https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/09/13/2295767/0/en/Grayscale-Investments-and-iCapital-Network-Partner-to-Provide-Advisors-with-Access-to-Digital-Currency-Investing.html

Quote from: https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1437459583409213444

Following the growth in the value of Bitcoin and Ethereum over the past 24 hours, AUM Grayscale has grown by about $1.5 billion and reached $43.5 billion
According to Grayscale, the company's Bitcoin Trust currently has assets worth almost $31 billion under management, and the total value of the Ethereum Trust in Grayscale reached almost $11 billion on September 15.

Quote from: https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1438243177043877889

Benjamin Melnicki, Chief Compliance Officer at Grayscale Investments and Craig Salm, Vice President of Legal, Grayscale Investments present an article posted on the Grayscale website where they reveal their vision for the policy in the field of regulation of the DeFi segment called "Thoughts on DeFi Policymaking and Regulation".
The authors consider the need for regulators to move from enforcement measures to recognition of DeFi as an important segment offering services in the field of traditional finance using the advantages of blockchain.
According to experts, DeFi is not intended to destroy traditional finance, but is an attempt to improve it. Well-intentioned legal regulation of the DeFi sphere will enable more than 2.5 billion people who do not have access to traditional finance to get the services they are interested in using decentralized finance, the authors of the article believe.

"DeFi and digital currencies have the potential to achieve the goals of financial accessibility, which are so desperately sought by many participants – politicians, legislators, market participants, voters, institutions, consumers. If we can unite to develop a comprehensive policy and related regulations that can regulate and promote the ecosystem of digital currencies, we will be able to influence positive changes that the financial industry has not seen for more than a decade, " the authors of the publication conclude. https://grayscale.com/the-case-for-defi-regulation/

Quote from: https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1438526128768040960

New commercial for Grayscale:

https://twitter.com/grayscale/status/1440362234232770567?s=21

Funnily enough, they launched their commercial while their shares trade at a hefty 15% discount to NAV:

Maybe someone will be dragged into buying?

Quote from: fillippone on September 21, 2021, 08:11:22 PM

New commercial for Grayscale:

https://twitter.com/grayscale/status/1440362234232770567?s=21

Funnily enough, they launched their commercial while their shares trade at a hefty 15% discount to NAV:

Maybe someone will be dragged into buying?

At least they are not afraid to use the word bitcoin in their advert..... .and yeah, 15% discount should cause some incentives for those persons or institutions who might be stuck with such indirect ways of exposing their portfolio to bitcoin.

By the way.. in the near future, there might be times in which I would like to merit your posts fillippone, such as this one, but I have reached my 30-day maximum in your direction... so gonna have to wait and suffer between the both of us, unless theymos were to lift such 50 smerits per member per month maximum.. which seems quite low odds of that happening any time soon.

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According to a report from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, filed Sept. 27, the Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund, which invests in established and emerging companies throughout Europe, owned 58,116 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, as of July 31. At the time of publication, the price of GBTC is $34.28, making the investment bank’s exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) roughly $2 million — Morgan Stanley reported thatthe shares cost $2.4 million.

Previous filings show that Morgan Stanley has increased its shares of GBTC by more than 105% since April. Cointelegraph reported in June that the investment bank held 28,298 GBTC, worth roughly $1.3 million at the time.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/morgan-stanley-doubles-exposure-to-bitcoin-through-grayscale-shares

not sure if it's cause they're so bullish with BTC and couldn't find a cheaper alternative, or they're just betting on the ETF that'll erase the current 16% discount

Quote from: DaRude on September 28, 2021, 01:30:41 PM

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Seems like purchase amounts that are hardly even worth reporting on... - an overall amount for ants, really - especially I would consider that to be quite lower than .1% of their investible assets... not sure what their overall investible asset amounts would be, but the total amount of GBTC that they hold is 58,116 (about $2.5 million or so of value at today's price).

For comparison, the article mentions that Ark invest holds about 8.3 million GBTC - which would be about $3.5 billion - which is also only about 0.69% of Ark Invests' total investible assets.

Seems to me that a lot of these BIG institutions, even if they do end up investing in something like GBTC, are going to be quite handicapped in their need to continuously reallocate and to NOT allow their likely to be best performing asset (talking about the underlying BTC to ride), which surely is a dynamic that is better for smaller investors and investors who may well not be handicapped by such requirements.

For example, in my own investment portfolio, in late 2014, I authorized myself to invest up to 10% of my investible assets into BTC, but I overrode my own authorization limitations and got up to something like 13.5% by the time late 2015 came along, and we know what happened after that in terms of BTC price performance.

With my overall investment portfolio, due to BTC price appreciation (and other movements) the BTC portion went from about 13.5% to 85% with the 2017 bubble, and then it regressed down to around 45% in the 2018/2019-ish crashes. But then with the 2020/2021 it rebounded back into the 90% proportion territory, and sure part of my point is that as an individual I have near absolute discretion regarding how much of my winner to let ride and to let continue to ride - but if I was a larger traditional investor (of other people's money), I would be hard pressed to keep so much value - percentage wise in any one investment, especially something like BTC.... So, it does seem to me that individuals and smaller players could well profit disproportionately by their greater discretion and flexibility in portfolio management - even if the BIGGER player financial institutions do continuously strive to advise folks about the various values of reallocating and keeping proportions that are largely within the original allocation levels... which I would argue would have caused me to have a decent amount of my overall wealth tied up in underperforming asset classes, such as equities (and holy shit bonds?) and perhaps properties that have their own issues of management and expenses.

This guy from BBG posted something that looks like an interesting analysis on GBTC.

https://twitter.com/jseyff/status/1443595361306742787?s=21

From these excerpts, looks like we covered almost everything in our thread.

I am not sure about short interest, but of course, it is an obvious correlation with NAV premium.

I already unleashed my hounds to fetch the whole story. I will keep you updated.

Grayscale, as part of the quarterly reballancing on Friday, added the Solana token and the decentralized Uniswap financial token to its Digital Currency Group in the amount of $494 million, now SOL accounts for 3.24% of its portfolio, and UNI 1%. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/10/01/grayscale-adds-solana-to-494m-digital-large-cap-fund/

Quote from: https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1444091073572245504

Speaking at @BloombergLive CEO of Grayscale Michael Sonnenshein expresses optimism about the comments from the SEC regarding the lack of intentions to ban cryptocurrencies, and also expresses an opinion about digital assets and precious metals as part of the single investment market and the role of ETFs for the digital asset class.

Quote from: https://twitter.com/BloombergLive/status/1445371277565431814

While bitcoin is showing growth, it's time to hand out interviews.

In a conversation with Yahoo Finance Editor-in-chief Andy Serwer, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein discusses the specifics of investing in digital assets, the need to understand technology and the specifics of using digital assets. And also what approaches the largest investment fund Grayscale uses to attract investors. https://money.yahoo.com/video/grayscale-investments-ceo-investing-crypto-161817250.html

Quote from: https://twitter.com/Grayscale/status/1445859914438508549