Grayscale Doubles Offerings With Four New Cryptocurrency Funds

(Bloomberg) -- Grayscale Investments Inc. announced four new funds Tuesday, each focused on a separate cryptocurrency, effectively doubling the number of its offerings. And there may be more on the way.

Qualified accredited investors will be able to put money into Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin and Ripple, the investment firm said in a statement. Each fund will operate as a trust, and the shares will be subject to a one-year holding period before they can be resold without restriction.

Grayscale, which manages $2.1 billion in assets, started out in 2013 with Bitcoin Investment Trust, focused on the best-known cryptocurrency. The added funds could broaden the New York-based company's geographic reach. There's a lot of interest in Ripple in Japan, for example, according to Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale.

“There will be more offerings coming from the Grayscale family this year,” he said in a phone interview. Some of those offerings will focus on single currencies, while other funds may hold several coins, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Andrew Dunn, Dave Liedtka

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