Grayscale Investments’ Report: Closing 2019 with record year, bringing assets raised for the full-year to over $600 million

By Congecko News On Jan 18, 2020

On Jan 16, Grayscale Investments, a digital currency investing services company, released its “Grayscale Digital Asset Investment Report 2019”. That is a comprehensive report that highlights investment activity and performance across the Grayscale family of products in 2019. During the fourth quarter (Q4) last year, Grayscale raised $225.5 million into its investment products, bringing assets raised for the full-year to $607.7 million and surpassing the $1 billion mark in total investments.

2019 marked the strongest annual asset raise of Grayscale

According to the comprehensive eighteen-page report, 2019 marked the strongest annual asset raise of Grayscale and surpasses cumulative investment across the company family of products dating back to the firm’s inception in Sep 2013.

Moreover, Michael Sonnenshein, Grayscale’s chief executive, shared that the majority of investments continue to come from institutional investors, accounting for 71% in 2019. Further, while the company’s client base expanded by 24%, it also saw deeper engagement from existing clients, which accounted for more than 75% of capital raised in 2019. Additionally, 36% of Grayscale clients currently allocate to more products in its product range.

“We saw record-breaking investment into Grayscale’s family of products, illustrating continued demand from investors for digital currency access products and with a majority of investment coming from institutions, it’s clear that we’re experiencing institutional adoption”, he said.

Grayscale’s investment products are available to institutional and recognized investors through their respective periodic and ongoing private placements. Single-asset investment products of the company provide exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Horizen (ZEN), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), XRP, and Zcash (ZEC). In addition, the diversified investment vehicle, Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund, provides exposure to the top digital currencies by market capitalization. As of Dec 31last year, Grayscale has managed about $2.0 billion in assets under management across its family of 10 products.

Grayscale’s investors love Bitcoin

Besides, secondary markets exist for four of Grayscale’s products include: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (OTCQX: ETHE), Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (OTCQX: ETCG), and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (OTCQX: GDLCF) are publicly quoted and available to all private and institutional investors on the OTCQX Best Market.

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust continued to lead the investment demand in 2019 with a total of $471.7 million, in which $193.8 million was raised in Q4, marking the largest quarterly investment into the Trust since its inception.

Marissa Arnold, communications director, in signaling a shift between traditional institutions, said that as the largest digital currency asset manager, they felt their numbers “are indicative of broader market sentiment and institutional flows into digital currency.”

When younger investors continue to find Bitcoin and other digital currencies safer investments, especially as BTC spikes, this may be the case.

Furthermore, as projecting the larger cryptocurrency market, he added the asset class is undergoing incremental confirmation process from legacy companies like Fidelity and CME, signaling to institutions and the investment community in general that cryptocurrency as an asset class will exist.

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