Grayscale Investments Resumes Private Placement of Bitcoin Trust Shares

Grayscale Investments has resumed private placement of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares, according to a press release on July 8.

According to the announcement, the private placement of GBTC shares is offered periodically to accredited investors — as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the Securities Act — for daily subscription. 

As per the report, the GBTC shares are designed to let investors put money into bitcoin (BTC) via a traditional investment structure. The shares are intended to correlate closely in value to BTC, but they are shares held in an investor’s name rather than the cryptocurrency itself.

The announcement states that a share of GBTC currently represents 0.00097876 Bitcoin. At press time, GBTC reportedly holds over $2.66 billion in assets under management, a notable uptick from just months previously.

In May, Grayscale reported that, out of its total $2.1 billion in assets under management, $1.97 billion were in its Bitcoin Trust.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Grayscale noted that according to its research, bitcoin (BTC) gained 47% from May 5–31, during the United States-China trade war. They also noted that BTC was the best-performing asset in this period, while the Chinese yuan depreciated in value. 

The firm sees this as confirming the theory that bitcoin flourishes when traditional assets flounder. Grayscale’s director of investments and research, Matthew Beck, remarked:

“While it is still very early in Bitcoin’s life cycle as an investable asset, we have identified evidence supporting the notion that it can serve as a hedge in a global liquidity crisis, particularly those that result in subsequent currency devaluations.”