Digital Currency Group to buy up to $250 million of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares

Digital Currency Group (DCG), Barry Silbert’s firm, announced its readiness to buy Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares worth up to $250 million.

Digital Currency Group Announces Plan to Purchase Shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: $GBTC)https://t.co/hJPnjGko1O

— Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert) March 10, 2021

The venture firm plans to implement the initiative on the open market. 

Grayscale is part of DCG’s empire, which Messari analysts valued at $4.3 billion in November.

The company stressed that the purchase decision can be revisited at any time, including terms and amount, or withdrawn entirely. Management will base its approach on available liquidity, the price of Bitcoin, and prevailing market conditions.

Details of the purchase will be disclosed in GBTC’s Form 10-K and 10-Q filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Since February 23, GBTC shares have traded at a discount to Bitcoin’s price. At the time of writing, it stood at 3.22%.

GBTC premium/discount to NAV. Data: yCharts.

Earlier, Arcane Research analysts explained that the observed phenomenon is partly due to rivals launching similar products.

Earlier this year, the Bitcoin fund launched BlockFi, in January — SkyBridge Capital; at the start of the year, Pantera Capital also announced similar plans.

In Canada, the local regulator approved two applications to launch Bitcoin ETFs—in February—from Purpose Investments and from Evolve Funds Group. In the first two days, the first of these attracted $421 million.

In the United States, applications to register Bitcoin ETFs with the SEC were filed by NYDIG, Bitwise, VanEck, and Valkyrie Digital Assets. None had been approved by the regulator at the time of writing.

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