Grayscale is a crypto asset manager that includes the largest bitcoin (BTC) fund in the range. This Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Fund However, (GBTC) has been in some serious trouble lately. Partly due to the bad price of bitcoin, the price of a share of the bitcoin fund has fallen faster than BTC itself. At the moment this ‘discount’ is no less than 36.2%!
GBTC fund
Grayscale’s fund offers traditional investors the opportunity to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without having to buy bitcoin directly from a broker or exchange. Grayscale’s fund itself is full of bitcoins.
The price of a GBTC share does not correspond 1-to-1 with the price of bitcoin. During periods of high demand, investors may have to pay relatively more for GBTC than the price of BTCand during periods of low demand the reverse is true.
This is the case today. During the first two quarters of this year, GBTC actually became cheaper relative to bitcoin itself. It was especially hard in September. Last week, the discount of no less than 36.2% was tapped. It is clear that demand for GBTC has dried up quite a bit this year.
An investment opportunity?
You may now be wondering why investors aren’t buying GBTC stock en masse now. Perhaps a better question, however, is why major institutional investors are ignoring bitcoin at the moment. According to Arcane Research it could be that an excellent opportunity is overlooked by investors, but it is also certainly possible that investors simply do not dare to make a bitcoin investment at the moment.
In addition, Grayscale also asks for an annual management fee of 2%.
The fact remains that if the bitcoin price picks up again and the demand for bitcoin rises again, the current discount that investing in GBTC shares offers will also disappear like snow in the sun.