Osprey Funds is the latest digital assets-focused investment manager vying to take over management of Grayscale’s bitcoin trust (GBTC) as public pressure against the troubled vehicle continues to mount.
The chief executive of crypto fund issuer Osprey, Greg King, called his company the “best-positioned third party” to manage the trust in an matala tatala addressed to Digital Currency Group (DCG) CEO Barry Silbert on Friday.
O le DCG o le kamupani matua a le Grayscale Investments, lea sa fa'agaioia GBTC since its 2013 launch. The trust now has roughly $12 billion in assets and imposes a 2% management fee — increasingly called out as unreasonable by the standards of passive crypto products.
If appointed as GBTC’s manager, Osprey — which operates its own bitcoin talitonuina — would slash GBTC’s management fee by roughly 75% to 0.49% a year.
“We would seek to implement a redemption program as soon as possible,” King said in the letter.
GBTC has been trading at a nearly 40% discount to its net asset value (NAV) this week, tusa i le YCharts.com.
Fuaina o le gutu molia the SEC in June after the regulator denied its proposal to convert GBTC to an ETF, an faifai pea legal dispute. The company has said converting GBTC to an ETF would accomplish what GBTC shareholders have pined for: the ability of Grayscale to simultaneously create and redeem shares. The move would curtail GBTC’s immense discount to its underlying bitcoins.
Greyscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein fai mai i le masina talu ai that the company is not interested in offering a redemption program. If the company is unsuccessful in converting GBTC to an ETF, the firm would consider a tender offer, he added.
King’s letter comes after Valkyrie Investments faʻatulaga taking over GBTC in a year end letter. Valkyrie co-founder Steven McClurg wrote then that his firm would “facilitate orderly redemptions at net asset value” and lower GBTC’s fee to 0.75%. Osprey, with its .49% proposal, is raising the bar on even lower fees.
It also comes about a month after hedge fund firm Fir Tree Partners faalauiloa se faamasinoga alleging “mismanagement” of GBTC and demanding private Grayscale information as to the trust’s inner workings. Grayscale ta'ua le suti "leai se faavae" vaiaso talu ai.
O se lugalaina osofaʻiga, too, has surfaced in recent weeks and seeks to offer GBTC investors “a credible path to redemptions.”
A DCG spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Maua tala o le crypto pito i luga ole aso ma fa'amatalaga e lafo ile pusa meli i afiafi uma. Fa'asoa ile nusipepa e leai se totogi a Blockworks le taimi nei.
E fiafia e faigaluega i Blockworks? O lo'o matou fa'afaigaluegaina le au tusitala, VP of Sales, ma inisinia! Siaki a matou avanoa avanoa.
Ua le mafai ona faatali? Maua a matou tala i le auala sili ona vave. Auai matou i le Telegram.
Source: https://blockworks.co/news/osprey-proposes-gbtc-takeover