Grayscale Investments LLC has stopped accepting new investments in its Ethereum Trust and Bitcoin Trust, 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 investments.
- 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 unheard of.
- On Monday JPMorgan analysts wrote that a dramatic slowdown in GBTC inflows could jack up the odds of a bitcoin price correction. That dramatic slowdown appears to be here – for now – as Grayscale will not be able to buy up more cryptocurrencies without fresh capital.
- A Grayscale representative did not immediately comment on the closure.
- New York-based Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk.