It’s Grayscale season: 5 new crypto trusts in 3 months

There are three certainties in crypto bull markets: memecoin manias, SEC lawsuits, and a wave of new Grayscale trusts

article-image

Artwork by Crystal Le

share

Grayscale is on a tear.

In the past few months, the OG crypto asset manager has launched five different single-token trusts — near and stacks in May, and bittensor, sui and maker in August.

Bittensor and sui popped after Grayscale announced the trusts earlier this month. TAO ran up to 25% in the following day while SUI almost doubled over the week. Both have since retraced slightly. 

The trusts themselves have so far amassed $655,429 in the case of SUI and $1.55 million for TAO. 

The MakerDAO product, disclosed on Tuesday but launched last Thursday, has otherwise collected $266,904 worth of MKR in private placements to date. MKR itself is up about 7.5% on the news.

The chart below shows the market caps of cryptocurrencies with a recently-formed Grayscale trust. 

Aside from NEAR, the recent Grayscale choices all carry a market cap of about $2 billion.

Arrows point to when each trust was revealed publicly — NEAR and STX have both lost ground since May. Grayscale’s dedicated trusts hold $2.05 million in NEAR and $2.37 million STX, so it’s not as though either one has ever bought enough of either token to really move prices.

Still, Grayscale hasn’t been on a spree like this since the crypto market was at its bubbliest, in 2021.

During the peak bull market from February to November 2021 Grayscale launched trusts for solana, filecoin, livepeer, basic attention token, decentraland and chainlink. 

That spree also came about three years after its previous run of new product launches, also when markets were super hot.

Across April 2017 and June 2018, there were new trusts for ethereum, ethereum classic, stellar, litecoin and bitcoin cash, as well as privacy coins zcash and horizen (with the latter later dropping that moniker). The firm’s bitcoin trust was conceived much earlier, in 2013. 

If we consider the bitcoin and ether trusts (now ETFs) as outliers with $24.3 billion and $5.2 billion in crypto under management, the remaining 17 single-token trusts currently hold on average $35.3 million in their respective coins. 

But in terms of timing, Grayscale doesn’t really have the best track record. 

Bitcoin isn’t shown as it would completely dwarf the others, with 47,500% gains since Grayscale launched its trust.

Of the 13 tokens with single-asset trusts launched since 2017 (there are also a few that hold multiple coins), only three have risen in price since Grayscale created their respective vehicles: ethereum, ethereum classic and livepeer. 

Most of the individual cryptocurrencies are still up over their full trading histories, it’s just that Grayscale tends to launch trusts when prices are relatively high. 

(There has historically been a lag between trust inception dates and their OTC Markets listings. The chart above shows returns since inception, and returns would look a little different if it measured since the trusts reached OTC Markets).

All this should convert to losses for most day-one contributors to individual Grayscale trusts, and even shareholders, although there has obviously been opportunity to time their markets for profit. But there’s another factor at play, which I’ll call “The Grayscale NAV conundrum.”

The underlying cryptocurrencies are in the darker colors, while the Grayscale trusts are faded in the background.

Shares in Grayscale trusts tend to pump much harder than the underlying cryptocurrencies. GSOL, the solana trust, for instance is up 1,800% since May 2022 while SOL, the cryptocurrency, has gained 150%.

The Grayscale NAV conundrum effectively misprices the shares to be far more expensive than the cryptocurrency held by the trusts (also known as the Grayscale discount/premium that had plagued GBTC and ETHE leading up to their ETF conversions) — which makes them much less attractive for regular investors. GSOL for instance is trading at a 660% premium.

But why? It’s a mixture of low share count, the closed-ended nature of the trusts, and speculation that more Grayscale vehicles will eventually be converted into ETFs, which could close the NAV gap. Or at least, present an opportunity to sell the news.

It’s not so clear whether Grayscale trusts push up prices of their underlying cryptocurrencies. Probably not, especially outside of bitcoin and ether. The headlines are likely more powerful.

It does say something about where Grayscale is at in terms of market outlook: still buzzy enough to launch a few more trusts.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

The DeFi Education Fund has ideas on how the crypto-friendly SEC can bring Commissioner Peirce’s vision to life

article-image

“Be prepared to do more with less,” Framework Ventures’ Michael Anderson said

article-image

Q1 may have been “frustrating,” but things are looking brighter for Q2

article-image

Tokens worth 20% of the current supply of the TRUMP memecoin launched by the president are set to be unlocked tomorrow

article-image

A crypto-industry lawsuit is “moot” now that Joint Resolution 25 has been signed into law

article-image

Fed Chair Powell assured markets that the labor market is in “good place,” dependent on price stability