Share this article
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Discount Hits Record at 26.5%
Analysts don't expect a spot bitcoin ETF conversion anytime soon, and in the meantime, investors in the GBTC fund are getting charged fees.
Updated Dec 8, 2022, 5:25 p.m. Published Jan 19, 2022, 6:25 p.m.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's (GBTC) shares have widened their discount relative to the underlying cryptocurrency held in the fund, reaching a record of 26.5% on Wednesday.
GBTC has been the preferred venue for institutional investors to gain exposure to crypto without having to purchase bitcoin directly, but the shares have traded at a steep discount over the past year as demand for the product shrank. (Grayscale Investments, which manages the trust, is a unit of Digital Currency Group, which also owns CoinDesk.)
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The premium flipped to a discount last February, and the discount has steadily widened ever since due to several factors, including the launch of spot-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Canada, which provided an alternative to those looking to invest in bitcoin through a stock market vehicle.
The persistent discount could also be due to investor skepticism regarding Grayscale's plan to convert the fund into a spot-based ETF. Some analysts don't expect a conversion anytime soon, and in the meantime, investors are getting charged fees.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission hasn't approved a spot bitcoin ETF.
"There's still no way for bitcoin to ever leave GBTC, which means it should continue to trade with a substantial discount to reflect that illiquidity," Dave Nadig, director of research and chief investment officer at ETFTrends.com, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.
The recent crypto sell-off also may have contributed to a wider GBTC discount. Bitcoin is down roughly 37% from its all-time high of nearly $69,000 in November, although the cryptocurrency's price appears to be stabilizing at about $42,000 at the time of writing.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Japan’s Higher Rates Puts Bitcoin in the Crosshairs of a Yen Carry Unwind
A stronger yen typically coincides with de-risking across macro portfolios, and that dynamic could tighten liquidity conditions that recently helped bitcoin rebound from November’s lows.
What to know:
- The Bank of Japan is expected to raise interest rates to 0.75% at its December meeting, the highest since 1995, affecting global markets including cryptocurrencies.
- A stronger yen could lead to de-risking in macro portfolios, impacting liquidity conditions that have supported bitcoin's recent recovery.
- Governor Kazuo Ueda indicated a high probability of a rate hike, with officials prepared for further tightening if their economic outlook supports it.
Top Stories
