Grayscale Ethereum Trust is now available for retail investors after being approved by FINRA, thus becoming the company’s third publicly-quoted investment vehicle, Bloomberg reports. Each share, which will be traded under the ticker ETHE, will represent about 9.662399 percent of 1 ETH (the amount of Ethereum will gradually decrease over time).
Opening arms for retail
Those investors who are not willing to deal with the inconveniences of purchasing and storing Ether now have another option. Earlier, it was only available for accredited investors who had to shell out at least $25,000.
The secondary market really opens up the opportunity for any and all investors,” Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of New York-based Grayscale Investments, told Bloomberg.
As Bloomberg points out, Grayscale Ethereum Trust currently holds around $12.5 mln worth of Ethereum. Grayscale won’t report any trading volumes until the shares are able to be deposited through the Depository Trust Company (“DTC”).
Prior to that, FINRA approved Grayscale’s Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic trusts.
Piquing institutions’ interest
Grayscale, despite losing its dominance among institutional investors, still saw its Q1 volumes substantially increasing compared to Q4 2018.
Overall, the largest cryptocurrency asset manager in the world operates ten cryptocurrency trusts.
According to its latest report, 99 percent of all inflows were into Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. The company raised $42.7 mln in Q1 with all of its products.
Denys Serhiichuk
Gamza Khanzadaev