Grayscale has launched a crypto investment trust fund for MakerDAO, according to an August 13 statement shared with CryptoSlate.
The fund, dubbed the Grayscale MakerDAO Trust, will provide investors with direct exposure to MakerDAO’s native MKR token. The company said:
“MKR offers investors exposure to an on-chain credit protocol, stablecoins, real-world assets and more, through the MakerDAO ecosystem.”
MakerDAO, a lending platform launched in 2017 on the Ethereum blockchain, is supporting the decentralized stablecoin DAI. According to data from DeFiLlama, MakerDAO is the fourth-largest DeFi protocol, with assets totaling approximately $7 billion. Its stablecoin DAI ranks third in the industry, behind Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
Previously, Grayscale offered exposure to MakerDAO through its DeFi fund, which also included assets like Uniswap, Lido, and Synthetix. However, the new Grayscale MakerDAO Trust will focus exclusively on the MKR token.
Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Head of Product and Research at Grayscale, described the launch as an important step in expanding the company’s crypto product lineup. She added:
“The launch of the Grayscale MakerDAO Trust allows investors to experience the growth of the entire MakerDAO ecosystem, aiming to remove DeFi’s reliance on traditional financial infrastructure by providing a permissionless, decentralized, and open stablecoin system.”
The Trust is now available for daily subscriptions to eligible individual investors and accredited institutional investors.
Grayscale Trust
Meanwhile, this launch comes shortly after Grayscale unveiled its Bittensor protocol and Sui trusts, which also target the native tokens of these ecosystems. The asset management firm now holds a trust for more than 20 digital assets, including Solana, Litecoin, Chainlink, ZCash, and others.
According to data from CoinGlass, the total value of assets under management of Grayscale’s crypto fund is over $7 billion.
Over the past year, Grayscale has successfully converted its Bitcoin and Ethereum fiat funds into cash exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. These products are among the largest crypto ETFs, with combined assets approaching $20 billion.
