Grayscale Bitcoin Trust falls as cryptocurrencies slide again

Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH)

16/11/2022 15:19

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Grayscale Bitcoin Trust  GBTC.PK ,
the world's largest bitcoin fund, fell almost 7% on Wednesday,
as investors dumped more digital assets after last week's
high-profile unraveling of crypto exchange FTX.
    Crypto investment bank Genesis Global Trading said in a
tweet it was temporarily suspending redemptions and new loan
originations in the wake of FTX's collapse, which has given
cryptocurrencies another hammering this year.
    Genesis, the latest company to be hit by FTX turmoil, is
owned by Digital Currency Group (DCG), which is also the parent
company of Grayscale.
    DCG tweeted that freezing Genesis' lending business had no
impact on the firm and its wholly-owned subsidiaries.
    Grayscale said it would be business as usual for its
products and its underlying assets were unaffected.
    Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's discount to its net asset value,
which hit an all-time low of 41% last week, is now at 37%.
Shares have not traded at a premium since March 2021, Coinglass
data showed.
    The trust is a close-ended fund, whose short-term price is
driven by supply, demand and market sentiment unlike an exchange
traded fund that generally trades in line with its value.
    In June, Grayscale sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission for nixing the digital asset manager's proposal to
convert bitcoin trust into a spot bitcoin exchange traded fund.
    Grayscale bitcoin fund, which has $10.7 billion worth of
bitcoin under management, has slumped about 75% in the past 12
months.
    Grayscale Ethereum Trust  ETHE.PK , which has $3.8 billion
assets under management, shed 81% in the past year. By
comparison, bitcoin  BTC=BTSP , which was down 2% at $16,505 on
Wednesday, has slumped 72% in the past year.
 (Reporting by Medha Singh and Lisa Pauline Mattackal in
Bengaluru)
 ((Medha.Singh@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 6210 0592; Twitter: https://twitter.com/medhasinghs;))