Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading has been on a high since July 21 with both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Bakkt seeing sizeable increases in volume and open interest for their contracts. This resurgence in BTC futures comes as the spot market value of the largest crypto by market capitalization reached a new 2020 high. Two months on from the May 2020 halving event, BTC has begun to show signs of the anticipated bullish advance. Bitcoin usually sets a new all-time high in the year following a block reward subsidy decrease, with BTC optimists stating the trend will continue. Amid the …

Crypto fund manager Grayscale Investments has managed to increase its assets under management by another $1 billion in less than two weeks. According to an update posted to Grayscale’s Twitter account on July 28, the investment firm currently has $5.1 billion in assets under management (AUM). The funds are mostly held in Grayscale’s trusts for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), along with the firm’s digital large cap fund. There are smaller allocations in Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Horizen (ZEN), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), XRP, and Zcash (ZEC) Grayscale assets under management. Source: Twitter This represents an increase …

Since early 2020, the institutional demand for Bitcoin (BTC) has been steadily increasing. In the second quarter of this year, data show that the appetite for BTC spiked significantly. According to crypto asset fund Grayscale, its products recorded an inflow of $1.4 billion in capital. The investment firm is best known for the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which allows institutions in the United States to gain exposure to Bitcoin through a publicly-traded over-the-counter stock. If the demand for Bitcoin climbed steadily in the first three months of 2020, it surged rapidly from March to June. One possible explanation for the sudden …

Crypto fund manager Grayscale Investments will make Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin available for public trading through shares of the firm’s cryptocurrency trusts. In the July 20 announcement, Grayscale said the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in the United States had verified shares of the firm’s Bitcoin Cash Trust and Litecoin Trust were ready to begin being quoted in OTC markets. The two stocks will soon be available for public trading under the symbols BCHG and LTCN. Public trading for the two digital assets remains subject to full compatibility with the Depository Trust Company (DTC), the world’s largest securities depository. “There …

Barry Silbert, CEO of cryptocurrency investment firm Grayscale Investments and Digital Currency Group, believes the United States is past the point of no return for banning Bitcoin. In a Grayscale investor call on July 16, the CEO said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the chances of regulations in the U.S. improving or at least not getting worse for the cryptocurrency. "For the first time ever, we are past the 'ban bitcoin' perceived risk," Silbert said. "There's enough support in DC from policy makers and regulators that Bitcoin has a right to exist and ultimately you can't shut it down." The …

The crypto market may finally see a Bitcoin ETF approval, although regulators need more time. “We think a Bitcoin ETF is a matter of when, not a matter of if,” Grayscale Investments managing director, Michael Sonnenshein, told Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano in a July 15 interview. “The regulators have done a fantastic job of staying ahead of the curve on the digital currency asset class as a whole,” he added. The crypto space moves fast Explaining the speed at which the global digital crypto world moves, Sonnenshein described the clarity U.S. regulatory bodies had provided the industry stems …

Grayscale Investments has just released its quarterly report which shows that institutional demand for Bitcoin and other digital assets is still on the rise despite the lack of action from Bitcoin price (BTC). The report shows that Grayscale had yet another record quarter for its digital asset products with $905.8 million dollars invested over that time period. The nearly $1 billion inflow means Grayscale almost doubled its previous high of $503.7 in the first quarter of 2020. Out of the total amount of funds accrued by Grayscale, Bitcoin continued to lead the pack with 82.92% or $751.1 million invested in …

The growth of the crypto derivatives market in 2020 has been a story of its own, mainly driven by Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) options traded on exchanges such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Deribit, OKEx, Binance and Houbi. Record Bitcoin options volumes are indicative of an increasing institutional interest in crypto, but there are better quantitative and qualitative indicators to use, such as open interest, Bitcoin’s price, frequency of block trades, institutional Know Your Customer processes and others. Compared with traditional derivatives, the proportion of institutional investors in the entire pool is still small, but it is clear that …

Grayscale Investments has purchased almost half a billion dollars in Bitcoin since the May block reward halving, and this week bought BTC around three times faster than miners could produce blocks. According to a June 25 tweet from crypto analyst Kevin Rooke, the investment firm bought 19,879 Bitcoin (BTC) — $184 million worth — in the last week for its Bitcoin Trust, bringing its total number of coins to roughly 400,000. Unbelievable. Grayscale added 19,879 BTC to their Bitcoin Trust since last week (53,588 BTC since the halving). Bitcoin miners only produced 7,081 BTC since last week (39,544 BTC since …

Shares in Grayscale’s Ethereum Investment Trust (ETHE) have crashed by 50% in just four days on the secondary, over-the-counter (OTC) markets. With each share representing 0.094 Ether (ETH), the sharp retracement has seen the price premium on the trust’s shares fall from 750% to roughly 360% in less than two weeks. ETHE’s current price of $102.5 means that investors are willing to pay an implied price of $1,090 per Ether in order to access ETH through the trust on the OTC markets. The crash coincided with the unlocking of many ETHE shares that were purchased on Grayscale’s primary market — …

Shares in Grayscale Investments’ Ethereum Investment Trust, or ETHE, have been trading at a 750% premium over the market rate of their underlying asset on the secondary markets, according to data published by crypto analysis firm Messari. The premium on Grascale’s fund has aggressively widened since the start of the year, with ETHE shares trading at 220% the spot price of Ether (ETH) in February. The trust offers exposure to ETH without investors needing to handle or custody cryptocurrency and is favored among institutional investors. ETHE premium widens ETHE shares have recently traded for as high as $2,905 per ETH …

The founder of investment firm Wilshire Phoenix, William Herrmann, said his firm’s recently filed U.S. Bitcoin fund notably differs from anything else currently on the U.S. market, based on its Bitcoin price sourcing and involved third parties. In an email exchange with Cointelegraph, Herrmann didn't mention Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust by name, but Grayscale is the most well-known U.S. product in the space. "The digital asset market has obviously experienced exponential growth, but the products currently in the space have not evolved with such growth," Herrmann told Cointelegraph. "We think investors deserve more." Grayscale Investments' Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) sits as one …