Grayscale bought bitcoin for a decade then became its #1 seller overnight
The world’s largest bitcoin fund, Grayscale’s GBTC, was once a Pacman-like entity, insatiably hoovering up bitcoin. When GBTC was a trust trading on OTC Markets, it had no mechanism for retail investors to sell any of its bitcoin holdings. For a full decade , GBTC gradually acquired more and more bitcoin , cresting a staggering net asset value of $30 billion earlier this month. Then on January 10, everything changed when the SEC approved GBTC ’s conversion into an ETF. For the first time in history, GBTC began systematically selling bitcoin. What’s more, it wasn’t the choice of any Grayscale trader to sell; selling was a requirement . As an ETF fund manager, Grayscale must ensure that GBTC’s share price tracks the price of bitcoin. Of course, that price tracking requires selling and buying bitcoin every day to ensure that GBTC’s quantity of bitcoin in custody matches bitcoin’s fluctuating price and corresponding GBTC share price. One week ago — literally, over...