Grayscale to expand crypto fund offering into Europe

CEO Michael Sonnenshein said the firm’s European rollout would be done piecemeal due to various regulatory regimes and investor attitudes.

Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments is planning to expand its product offerings into Europe to tap into growing institutional demand for cryptocurrencies in the region, CEO Michael Sonnenshein confirmed Tuesday.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Sonnenshein said the company was holding meetings with local partners to discuss how Grayscale’s suite of products would be rolled out in the region. The company hasn’t made any definitive plans regarding which exchanges and countries would be supported initially, though Grayscale plans to launch pilot tests in several markets across the European Union. 

Sonnenshein explained that Grayscale would be looking at investor behaviors and local regulations in determining its product rollout. “Although the EU is unified, we don’t view the entire European market as in fact one market,” he said. “Instead we’re going to be very thoughtful, very methodical about each of the financial centers and financial hubs that we ultimately launch in.”

Grayscale is by far the world’s largest crypto fund manager, with over $35.7 billion in assets under management as of Monday. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which trades under the ticker symbol GBTC, has amassed nearly $25.8 billion in assets. Meanwhile, the recently launched smart contract fund that excludes Ethereum already has more than $3.7 million under management.

Here’s a look at our 14 single asset crypto investment funds as of 4/25/2022.
AUM and other stats on all Grayscale products are updated daily on our website: https://t.co/1WBt5qD8Zo$BAT $BCH $BTC $ETC $ETH $FIL $LINK $LPT $LTC $MANA $SOL $XLM $ZEC $ZEN pic.twitter.com/ELHwldtB7r

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) April 25, 2022

Related: Institutional investment flows out of ETH and into competing L1 altcoins

Grayscale has been trying to convert its flagship GBTC product into a spot exchange-traded fund, something that the United States market currently lacks. Grayscale has expressed a willingness to take legal action against the Securities and Exchange Commission should it deny its application.

As Bloomberg noted, the European market has over 80 crypto exchange-traded products, including 60 that were launched before 2022.