Grayscale Investments LLC has temporarily stopped accepting new investors in six funds, including its Ethereum Trust and Bitcoin Trust funds, both gateways for institutional crypto bets.
- The crypto asset manager's website said Monday that its Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin and Digital Large Cap Fund Trusts are "currently unavailable" for new investors.
- Grayscale periodically closes off its crypto trusts to so-called "private placement" rounds. Such action happened repeatedly to GBTC in Q4 2019 – so the Monday halting is not unusual.
- Even with the temporary closing to new investors, Grayscale will still be able to obtain added capital from existing investors until it reopens again to new investors. On Monday JPMorgan analysts wrote that a dramatic slowdown in GBTC inflows could jack up the odds of a bitcoin price correction.
- New York-based Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk.
CORRECTED 12/21/20 19:31: Rewrites headline to emphasize the closing is temporary. Corrects to note the trusts can still obtain capital from existing investors.
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