Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments on Tuesday filed for a spinoff of its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
The spinoff is part of a bid to offer investors lower-fee exposure to bitcoin, according to a person familiar with the matter.
GBTC – which in January received approval to convert from a trust to an ETF – currently has higher fees than its peers, one of the key factors in drawing investors to rival ETFs, Reuters has reported.
Grayscale filed to list shares of a new investment product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, which will receive a certain amount of bitcoin held by GBTC. In exchange, current GBTC shareholders will get stock in the Mini Trust, the company said.
Since January, GBTC has seen capital outflows of $11.05-billion, according to data from crypto research firm BitMEX Research, even as bitcoin climbed to an all-time high and competitors recorded inflows over the same period.
Grayscale is yet to determine the fees the Mini Trust will charge, according to the filing. Following the spinoff, both GBTC and the Mini Trust will operate independently, it said.
The company’s landmark victory in a legal fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) led to the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs – investment vehicles that allow shareholders to gain exposure to bitcoin without directly holding it – in January.
Since the approval, competitors BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund have recorded inflows of $10.59-billion and $6.37-billion, respectively.
The ETF euphoria and hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates have propelled bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, above $72,000. Bitcoin was last trading at $72,095, down 0.09 per cent on the day.