Grayscale, the world’s largest digital asset fund manager with $24 billion under management, allows institutional investors to gain exposure to bitcoin through shares in its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)—a fund that currently holds just over 650,000 bitcoin tokens, some 3% of bitcoin’s circulating supply. GBTC shares are subject to a six-month lockup after being purchased.
“Despite one being a single-asset fund of the other, bitcoin and GBTC are two distinct assets with different forces influencing their respective prices,” Pete Humiston, manager of Kraken Intelligence, said in emailed comments alongside Kraken’s latest market recap report. “While we don’t anticipate the unlock window to have any major market impact, the trading strategies commonly used by institutional investors leads us to conclude that the event could be mildly positive for the bitcoin price.”
Large institutions make up a sizable proportion of the GBTC owners who’ll have their shares unlocked this month, according to Kraken Intelligence, pointing to recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
These institutions are thought to have bought GBTC shares with bitcoin to harvest the premium to net asset value that GBTC was trading at and to do so may have shorted—or bet against—bitcoin to avoid being impacted by price volatility. As a result, if these institutions did cash out their GBTC shares they may have to buy bitcoin from the spot market to cover their GBTC hedge.
“Despite one being a single-asset fund of the other, bitcoin and GBTC are two distinct assets with different forces influencing their respective prices,” Pete Humiston, manager of Kraken Intelligence, said in emailed comments alongside Kraken’s latest market recap report. “While we don’t anticipate the unlock window to have any major market impact, the trading strategies commonly used by institutional investors leads us to conclude that the event could be mildly positive for the bitcoin price.”
Large institutions make up a sizable proportion of the GBTC owners who’ll have their shares unlocked this month, according to Kraken Intelligence, pointing to recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
These institutions are thought to have bought GBTC shares with bitcoin to harvest the premium to net asset value that GBTC was trading at and to do so may have shorted—or bet against—bitcoin to avoid being impacted by price volatility. As a result, if these institutions did cash out their GBTC shares they may have to buy bitcoin from the spot market to cover their GBTC hedge.
