Grayscale Investments, a crypto investment fund manager and subsidiary of Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, is estimated to have purchased up to one-third of all newly minted Bitcoin during the past three months amid the run-up to the block reward halving.
The announcement comes as average weekly investments into Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust, or BIT, reached $29.9 million over the first quarter of 2020.
In response to a tweet publicizing the figures, Grayscale founder Barry Silbert stated: “just wait until you see Q2.”
The average weekly investment into the trust has increased by over 800% when compared to Q1 2019’s $3.2 million.
Grayscale Investments absorbs 34% of new BTC
On May 19, Redditor “parakite” posted estimates indicating that Grayscale has spent the past three months accumulating up to one-third of all freshly mined Bitcoin (BTC).
The purchases added 60,762 BTC to its Bitcoin Relief Fund — equating to a rate of 607 Bitcoins over 100 days.
As of May 17, the fund was believed to be holding 343,954 BTC in total — a 21% increase in three months.
BIT assets under management up 80% in one year had reached $3.8
On May 19, Grayscale announced that the value of its assets under management had reached $3.8 billion, up from $2.1 billion as of May 2019.
The data also revealed that the firm’s Ethereum Trust has emerged as Grayscale’s second-largest, representing nearly $290 million.
