Grayscale is tentatively looking to offer YFI

Grayscale Investments has registered an LLC for a prospective Yearn Finance (YFI) Trust, giving the first sign that the asset manager is considering the DeFi coin. 

The new YFI entity was incorporated as a Statutory Trust in Delaware on Feb. 10, 2021. Grayscale now has 33 registered trusts in the state, though only nine are active, based on the fund manager's AUM reports. This includes the industry-leading Bitcoin Trust, which has nearly $30 billion in assets. 

Grayscale has also formed LLCs for Polkadot, Uniswap, Theta and Cardano, among many others. Registering a corporation doesn’t mean that the new business entity is operational. In this case, the LLC is a placeholder for a future fund offering that may or may not come to fruition. 

A spokesperson for Grayscale told Cointelegraph that the new entity is merely a "reservation filing" that could become operational in the future:

Grayscale is always looking for opportunities to offer products that meet investor demands. Occasionally, we will make reservation filings, though a filing does not mean we will bring a product to market. Grayscale has and will continue to announce when new products are made available to investors.

Despite that "reservation" status, as well as the cheap cost of registering an LLC in Delaware (Grayscale itself is a Delaware-registered LLC), the process is not free, and registrants typically need to pay annual fees to maintain their active status. Even if a YFI trust is nowhere near launch, this is at least a definite indicator of interest. 

Grayscale’s investment funds have drawn considerable attention from mainstream investors looking to gain access to cryptocurrencies via traditional vehicles. The fund manager remains the de facto leader in this space, with total assets well north of $36 billion.

02/10/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.Total AUM: $36.2 billion$BTC $BCH $ETH $ETC $ZEN $LTC $XLM $ZEC pic.twitter.com/y2XJAldHIz

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) February 10, 2021

Yearn Finance offers one of the more compelling value propositions in DeFi. It’s the only digital asset to mirror Bitcoin (BTC) in terms of price, which is largely due to its very limited supply and role as an aggregator for DeFi investors. During the initial wave of DeFi mania last summer, YFI exceeded Bitcoin's price momentarily. 

YFI set a new all-time high on Thursday, climbing above $45,500 for the first time.