Grayscale Adds to Bitcoin and Ethereum Offerings With New Avalanche Trust

Digital asset asset manager Grayscale has launched a fund giving investors exposure to Avalanche (AVAX).

The firm said Thursday that the Grayscale Avalanche Trust is now open for eligible accredited investors and will operate like other crypto funds it offers. 

Grayscale is one of 10 asset managers that received the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission in January to launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The firm previously had a fund—GBTC—that gave investors exposure to the biggest cryptocurrency, but operated like a closed-end fund. It became an ETF this year, though, and has been very successful with investors.

The firm has since done the same with its Grayscale Ethereum Fund after spot Ethereum ETFs were approved in the United States. Such ETFs began trading in July. Grayscale has also since launched "Mini" versions of its Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs with lower comparative fees for investors.

But apart from ETFs for those top two assets, Grayscale also gives investors exposure to the fast-moving and often complex world of investing in digital coins and tokens via Trusts for Bitcoin Cash, Filecoin, Chainlink, Litecoin, and other assets. 

“Through its key strategic partnerships and unique, multi-chain structure, Avalanche is playing a pivotal role in the advancement of real-world asset tokenization,” said Grayscale’s head of product and research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary.

AVAX is the 14th biggest virtual coin by market cap, per data from CoinGecko. The crypto network it runs on is designed to allow developers to build decentralized apps (dapps), which aim to improve current platforms by cutting out middlemen and being more equitable for users and creators. 

Builders are also using Avalanche’s network to tokenize assets. Putting real world assets on the blockchain so investors can get a cut is something that traditional finance bigwigs like BlackRock CEO Larry Fink have spoken about.

Avalanche has piqued the interest of Wall Street. Earlier Thursday, investment firm Franklin Templeton made its Nasdaq-listed OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund available on the Avalanche network.

AVAX is up 4.2% over the last day to a current price of $24.44, outpacing major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of daily gains—and now up 18% on the week.

Edited by Andrew Hayward