Peter Mintzberg, a former executive at Goldman Sachs, will take over as CEO on August 15.
Michael Sonnenshein has announced his resignation as chief executive officer of Grayscale Investments, LLC.
Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent firm of Grayscale, announced that Peter Mintzberg, a former executive at Goldman Sachs, would replace Sonnenshein effective August 15th.
In a post on May 20th, Silbert wrote: “Peter Mintzberg will be joining Grayscale as CEO on August 15th, and we are thrilled to have him on board as we prepare the company for its future development. With over 20 years of expertise at illustrious asset managers including BlackRock, OppenheimerFunds, and Invesco, Peter joins the team from Goldman Sachs.”
Established in 2013, Grayscale has grown to become one of the leading cryptocurrency asset management companies globally. As of September 2021, the business was responsible for managing assets valued at more than $50 billion.
According to Silbert, who wrote: Sonnenshein was instrumental in launching the first U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during his ten years as CEO.
When it came to Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Grayscale was among the first US issuers. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) became the first publicly listed Bitcoin fund on January 11, after having been operational since 2013.
Holding more than 287,801 Bitcoin valued at $19.3 billion and representing 34.9% of the market, Grayscale’s GBTC is the leading ETF in terms of on-chain Bitcoin investments. Investors are also required to pay the highest fee by Grayscale, at 1.5 percent, as opposed to the market average of 0.20% to 0.25%.
Dune reports that the biggest cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) is BlackRock’s iShares ETF (IBIT), which has more than 274,000 BTC valued at $18.4 billion and accounts for 33.3% of the market.
In a post on May 19, Jim Bianco, founder of the macro research company Bianco Research, warned that spot Bitcoin ETFs might eat into on-chain liquidity, even as they claim to attract more baby boomers to Bitcoin:
“Digital assets will not reach the promised land of a new decentralised financial system by bringing money off-chain into the Tradfi world in the shape of an orange FOMO poker chip. To the contrary, it is impeding our progress towards this objective.”
According to Bianco, this might pose a threat to Bitcoin’s reputation as a decentralized alternative to the existing fiscal system, as long as ETFs keep transferring on-chain funds back into the realm of traditional finance (TradFi):
“If creating a new financial system is the aim, then an ETF that brings capital back into the Tradfi world will not lead to the promised land.”
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