Peter Mintzberg Appointed New CEO

May 23, 2024

Leadership Reshuffle at Grayscale Investments: New CEO Takes Over =================================================================

Grayscale Investments, has announced a significant leadership change as CEO Michael Sonnenshein, exits his role amid considerable investor withdrawals from the firm’s main GBTC ETF fund.

On May 20, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, Peter M., will take over as CEO in August. Mintzberg, a seasoned professional in finance, has previously served Goldman Sachs’s global head of strategy for the bank’s asset management operations.

The company remains silent from crypto.news.

This leadership change happens at a time of notable shifts for the firm's key fund, which recently recorded its first weekly net inflows in nearly 19 weeks. Analyst Matteo Greco from Fineqia International noted that GBTC experienced $31.6 million in net inflows between May 13 and May 17.

Despite this positive news, these inflows are comparatively minor compared to the approximately $17.6 billion in exits since January, following the Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs.

The impact of these investor exits on Sonnenshein’s decision to resign remains unclear. However, it is known that Grayscale lost 50% of its assets under management within six months of GBTC’s transition from a trust to an exchange-traded fund.

Bitcoin ETFs Gain Significant Inflows

Last week, spot Bitcoin ETFs together saw $950 million in net inflows, with 11 funds issued by firms including firms like Grayscale, BlackRock, Fidelity, ARK 21Shares, and others, according to data from SoSoValue analytics.

Greco highlighted that this renewed interest boosted Bitcoin’s price by 7% over the week, bringing it to around $66,300. This uptick follows five weeks of stable demand and low daily volatility for spot BTC ETFs.

Potential for Spot Ethereum ETF Approvals

With the resurgence in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows and the subsequent price recovery of Bitcoin, concentration is turning to spot Ethereum (ETH) ETFs. The U.S. SEC Bitcoin ETF approval is set to make decisions on filings from VanEck and ARK 21Shares on May 23 and May 24, respectively. Greco suggested that market participants anticipate the SEC to push back the decision for these products, despite having approved BTC ETFs in January.

Concerns about the liquidity of ETH’s spot and futures markets, along with its classification as a security by the SEC, contribute to skepticism regarding a swift approval. If the filings are rejected, issuers may need to resubmit, potentially leading to approval in late 2024 or early 2025.

Conversely, the SEC might approve the 19b-4 filings, which propose rule changes, while delaying the S-1 registration statements required before publicly offering securities. Both approvals are necessary for spot Ethereum ETFs to trade on U.S. national exchanges. Greco noted that this delay could give the SEC more time to further evaluate the Ethereum market and finalize its stance on ETH’s status as a security.

This article was published initially on Coinatory, a trusted source for crypto news and updates.