Amid the sharp rise in bitcoin’s price Wednesday, shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) also saw notable gains.
Bitcoin’s sudden rally – which many analysts are associating with expectations around the coming miner reward halving event – helped propel the investment vehicle to a 14.3% gain on the day, with a market price per share at $9.60 at the session close.
Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust has also seen a significant increased, up 7.7% to $104.50 per share.
The trust’s share prices continue to profit from investor sentiment driven by a fear of missing out (FOMO) amid bitcoin’s recent rallies on the back of this year’s halving, scheduled for May 12. The supply cutting event will reduce the rewards given to bitcoin miners per block mined by half.
At time of writing, bitcoin is changing hands for around $8,948 and is up over 130% from the crash witnessed March 12 and 13, when prices bottomed at below $4,000. Prices peaked at over $9,400 in the early hours of Thursday.
Further, the firm’s total net assets under management (UAM), which include top-10 cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC) bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP), have now topped $3 billion, according to the latest tweet from institutional investment firm.
(Disclosure: Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk.)
It’s worth noting that the pricing used to determine the total AUM was based on the private placement offering price, that is the sale of shares sold to pre-selected investors or institutions and was calculated using a non-GAAP methodology.
Other Grayscale investment vehicles that have benefited on the back of the wider crypto market rise include the XRP Trust, up 8%, the Litecoin Trust, up 6.6% and the Digital Large Cap Fund, up 7.5%.
The trusts, targeted towards institutional investors, have their prices quoted on the OTCQX marketplace.
OTCQX is designed for both U.S. and international companies that must meet stringent financial standards to qualify for a stake in a fund. Interested companies also need to be compliant with U.S. securities laws and up-to-date in their disclosures. Penny stocks and shell companies cannot qualify for a OTCQX listing.
As seen in the chart above, GBTC fell short of climbing above the 200-day moving average (MA) at around $10.31 per share. The MA represents a significant level for investors looking to see a continuation from March 16 lows of around $5.01.
GBTC is currently up 91% from those lows and will likely see further gains should bitcoin continue its phenomenal April 29-30 rally. As seen on the chart, total daily volume is now also significantly higher than at the end of 2019.
Despite a shaky start for cryptocurrencies in 2020, Grayscale claimed it raised a record $500 million in the first quarter of this year, nearly double the previous quarterly high of $254.8 million reached in Q3 2019.
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