Bitcoin and cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale Investments is today planning to move billions of dollars worth of holdings to U.S. crypto wallet provider and trading platform Coinbase in what could be one of the largest single day transfers of bitcoin and crypto assets ever.
Grayscale, which claims to be the world’s largest bitcoin and digital currency asset manager, is today announcing Coinbase Custody will serve as custodian of the underlying assets for its products, and is expected to transfer nearly $3 billion of assets in fewer than 12 hours to Coinbase.
Grayscale Investments last month recorded an all-time high volume of assets under management of $2.7 billion, much of which is held in bitcoin, Ripple’s XRP, ethereum, and litecoin.
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Coinbase Custody, which is operated as a standalone, independently-capitalized business to Coinbase, will now will oversee Grayscale’s cryptocurrency holdings, including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP, among other major tokens, as well as Grayscale’s publicly quoted cryptocurrency trusts and its Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund, which provides exposure to bitcoin and crypto through a market cap-weighted portfolio.
“Grayscale and Coinbase have led the way in providing safe, secure, trustworthy, and regulated access to digital assets. Grayscale is an established, trusted, and valuable partner to its clients and its service providers should be the same,” said Sam McIngvale, Coinbase Custody chief executive.
“As a NY State-chartered trust company, Coinbase Custody is held to the same fiduciary standards as national banks. We also offer some of the broadest and deepest insurance coverage in the crypto industry.”
The move comes as bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors nervously look for signs of how global regulators will react to Facebook’s plans to launch its own cryptocurrency sometime next year, dubbed libra.
Expectations that some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies, including iPhone-maker Apple and micro-blogging platform Twitter, are increasingly looking to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a potential source of revenue has been largely responsible for the rise in the bitcoin price so far this year.
Earlier this month, the New York-based Grayscale reported assets under management of $2.7 billion, an all-time high for the company and up three-fold on the previous quarter.
Last month, Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service, boasted it has signed up 30 million users since launching in 2012, with eight million new users added over the last 12 months.
Grayscale has benefitted from the rising bitcoin price so far this year, which has pushed up the wider cryptocurrency market, boosting ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, and litecoin.
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“Since its introduction in 2009, bitcoin has steadily grown in popularity and today has expanded its reach to a broad mainstream audience,” Grayscale reported.
“Investors are constantly looking for new ways to diversify their portfolios as traditional assets and markets have begun to move more closely in sync with one another.”
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I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends, and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its emergence as a niche technology into the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for CityAM, the Financial Times, and the New Statesman, amongst others. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me on billyATbillybambrough.com. Disclosure: I occasionally hold some small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
