MutualFundWire.com: A Digital Assets Fund Giant Preps 3 ETFs

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Friday, May 12, 2023

A Digital Assets Fund Giant Preps 3 ETFs

A team that lays claim to being the world's largest digital currency asset manager is preparing to launch a trio of ETFs.

David Vincent "Dave" LaValle
Grayscale Investments, LLC
Global Head of ETFs

On Tuesday, Michael Sonneshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, and Dave LaValle, global head of ETFs, unveiled the launch of the Grayscale Funds Trust. The Grayscale folks also filed to create, within that trust, the Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF (ETHG), the Grayscale Global Bitcoin Composite ETF (BTC), and the Grayscale Privacy ETF (PRVC). Per the filing, expect the three ETFs to debut sometime this year.

ETHG will be an actively managed ETF focusing on ethereum futures contracts. The other two funds will be passively managed, using Indxx as their index provider, with BTC tracking the Indxx Global Bitcoin Composite Index and PRVC tracking the Indxx Privacy Index. (Our sister publication CeFiWire offers more details on the investment strategies and indexes behind the planned funds.)

Grayscale Advisors, LLC (formed in January 2022) will serve as the investment advisor to all three planned ETFs, which will list on the NYSE Arca. Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young LLP will serve as counsel.

Yet beyond the specific inception dates of the planned funds, there are many other blank spaces for the Grayscale team to fill in, too. No expense ratios are listed for the three funds, and the Grayscale folks have not yet named most of the planned funds' service providers. So far, the funds have no named administrator, custodian, distributor, independent accounting firm, index receipt agent, portfolio manager(s), subadvisor(s), or transfer agent.

The unveiling of the Grayscale Funds Trust comes as the Grayscale team is fighting a legal battle with the SEC to convert their flagship Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, a '34 Act fund, into an ETF. Yet the Grayscale Funds Trust (and thus the ETFs planned for it) will use a traditional '40 Act investment company structure. (They also have one other ETF, launched last year, that is part of an outside series trust.)

"The creation of Grayscale Funds Trust reflects our dedication to scaling Grayscale's business responsibly," Sonnenshein states. "We are putting the necessary foundations in place so Grayscale can continue creating and managing regulated, future-forward products."

LaValle (former head of ETF capital markets for SSGA and former ETP marketplace chief at Nasdaq) notes that he has been building out Grayscale's ETF team and expanding partnerships.

Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=65963

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