Grayscale's newly appointed CEO, Michael Sonnenshein, told Bloomberg Thursday that alimony funds and endowments are investing actively into the Grayscale family of funds.

He explained:

"We've started to see participation not merely from the hedge fund segment, which nosotros've long seen participation from, but now it's recently from other institutions, pensions and endowments. [...] The sizes of allocations they are making are growing speedily as well."

Grayscale has been at the center of the Bitcoin (BTC) ownership spree and now holds roughly iii% of the BTC in circulation. The fund manager continues to accrue large positions in the digital nugget as more institutional investors seek exposure to Bitcoin.

Its total assets under direction, or AUM, take eclipsed $27 billion across 10 dissimilar products. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust remains by far its most popular production, with over $23 billion in AUM. Grayscale'southward Ethereum trust is currently valued at effectually $three.6 billion, while its Digital Large Cap Fund holds near $339 million.

Pension funds are post-obit a hoard of institutional buyers that began entering the Bitcoin market in 2020. A survey conducted past Fidelity Investments terminal twelvemonth institute that 36% of financial institutions beyond the U.s. and Europe said they own cryptocurrencies or derivatives. Over ane-quarter of the respondents reported holding Bitcoin, while xi% said they own Ether (ETH).

The institutional influx into cryptocurrency and Bitcoin is intensifying, according to Grayscale Investments, with pension funds and endowments amidst the most recent entrants into the space.

Grayscale's aggressive BTC buying is likely contributing to the digital currency's rapid price appreciation. With more Bitcoin taken out of circulation, the already scarce asset is becoming fifty-fifty more hard to come past. Sonnenshein explained:

"This is a verifiable deficient nugget and so when there are mechanisms that are removing them from apportionment, that'south inherently making information technology an even scarcer asset."