Grayscale dumps XRP: Here's where it's putting the cash

Published at: Jan. 5, 2021

Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset manager, announced Tuesday that it has liquidated its XRP holdings and used the remaining funds to buy up more Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC).

The decision affects Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund, a market-cap-weighted asset that provides exposure to the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The sale of XRP occurred on Monday, less than a week after Genesis Global Trading, the fund’s authorized participant, announced it would soon temporarily suspend XRP trading, likely in relation to the lawsuit filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against Ripple.

Genesis Global Trading plans to halt all XRP transactions on Jan. 15.

Prior to the sale on Monday, XRP accounted for roughly 1.46% of the Digital Large Cap Fund. The fund’s components are now 81.63% BTC, 15.86% Ether (ETH), 1.08% BCH and 1.43% LTC. Each share represented 0.00047489 BTC, 0.00287011 ETH, 0.00047537 BCH and 0.00167314 LTC.

Grayscale also confirmed the fund’s new composition in a series of Twitter posts on Tuesday.

3/ $XRP was removed following DLC Fund's Quarterly Review (12/31/20). No others assets qualified for inclusion. The below table highlights DLC Fund’s weightings as of January 4, 2021: $BTC $ETH $BCH $LTC pic.twitter.com/g3QQEf0kd8

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) January 5, 2021

The fund manager said XRP was "removed following DLC Fund's Quarterly Review (12/31/20)." It explained that no other asset qualified for inclusion in the fund. 

Grayscale's assets under management recently eclipsed $20 billion for the first time, highlighting broad institutional demand for Bitcoin and other digital assets. The asset manager is scooping up Bitcoin in greater quantities, with at least one metric showing Grayscale bought nearly three times more BTC than was mined in December. 

Although XRP was among several large-cap cryptocurrencies to rally in recent months, its outlook remains clouded by a wave of exchange delistings in the United States. Bitwise Asset Management became one of the first high-profile fund managers to unload its XRP holdings before Christmas. 

For its part, Ripple has vowed to fight the SEC's accusations that the company conducted an illegal securities offering of its XRP token. A statement released last week by Ripple said the firm will continue to operate and support its products outside the United States. 

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