Are the 6 newly added Grayscale trust entities with the same name really registered by Grayscale?

On January 22, some media reported that Grayscale is about to launch six new trust products including LINK and BAT.

After checking the official website of the Delaware government, six trust entities suspected to be related to Grayscale appeared, namely "GRAYSCALE BASIC ATTENTION TOKEN TRUST (BAT)", "LINK", "MANA", "FIL", "LPT", and "XTZ".

At the same time, the website also shows Grayscale’s existing trust entities with the same name, including “GRAYSCALE BITCOIN TRUST (BTC)”, “BCH”, “ETH”, etc.

Image source: Delaware official website

This news has sparked widespread discussion in the community. Grayscale officials have not yet responded to whether the news is true. The key point is to confirm whether the company entities with the same name as the Grayscale Trust shown in the Delaware government are registered by Grayscale?

Grayscale Investments' registered agent is Delaware Trust Company

According to official inquiries from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), these newly emerged trust entities have not yet submitted documents to the SEC. The registered place of business of the issued trusts, such as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, is shown as New York.

Image source: US SEC

However, according to Grayscale's official information, the registered agent for Grayscale Investments is the Delaware Trust Company, a regulated company trust and agency service provider. According to Delaware law, each legal entity must use a registered agent to ensure that legal documents can be received during business hours.

Image source: Grayscale

At the same time, BlockBeats found that the six newly added trust entities were all registered through the Delaware Trust Company, and the registration time was December 18, 2020 (Filecoin Trust was registered on October 15).

Six new trust registration agency companies are added, all of which are Delaware trust companies.

At the same time, the registration time of Grayscale's existing trust entities with the same name was checked, and they all matched the launch time of Grayscale.

Grayscale's existing trust registration time

Grayscale Investments' new CEO Michael Sonnenshein said in January 2021 that Grayscale expects to launch six new products in 2021. The number of new trust entities just fits Grayscale's 2021 plan.

In addition, most of the tokens of these six newly added trust entities have been listed on Coinbase or Coinbase Custody. Grayscale is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, and Coinbase is one of DCG's investment portfolios. Grayscale's custody business is also the responsibility of Coinbase.

Through Google snapshots and searches, it can be found that the file number officially disclosed by the Delaware State corresponds to the Grayscale Trust.

According to the screenshots provided by Weibo KOL "不好说明" on Weibo, Grayscale founder Barry Silbert also mentioned holdings of MANA, LPT and other tokens in his previous Twitter profile.

In summary, although it cannot be confirmed 100% because Grayscale officials have not yet responded, the 6 new Grayscale trust entities with the same name shown on the Delaware official page are most likely registered by Grayscale officials.

Grayscale's official addition of new trust products does not necessarily mean that institutions are optimistic about them

Grayscale's trust products provide a new channel for investors, especially institutional investors. Grayscale's launch of new token trust products is not linked to secondary market prices.

According to Grayscale's official information, the hard requirements for individuals to participate in Grayscale Trust's private placements are an annual income of more than $200,000 or a family annual income of $300,000, and a net worth of more than $1 million. For physical enterprises, they must have more than $5 million in liquid assets. This means that most investors do not meet the requirements of Grayscale Trust's private placements.

While the threshold for private placement is high, compared with Bitcoin Trust and Ethereum Trust, the newly launched trust products may not be able to enter the OTC Market in a short period of time. Therefore, in the short term, users with less funds will not be able to participate in the speculation of trust products.

Currently, the daily trading volume of GBTC in the OTC Market is $905 million, while the daily trading volume of ETHE is only $91 million. Investors should be cautious about new trust products that lack the high premium of the secondary market of the OTC Market, because this does not mean that institutions are optimistic.