Grayscale Says Each GBTC Share Is Backed by Proportionate Amount of Bitcoin

Grayscale, the entity behind the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), shared details of its digital asset products.

In a Dec. 1 post, Grayscale said its products were safe and secure and all balances in public filings had been audited by third parties. The firm said it was sharing details in the interest of transparency, given the fact that investors have been “understandably inquiring deeper” into its investments.

Grayscale said that all of its digital asset funds are structured as a separate legal entity. Single asset funds are set up as a statutory trust, while diversified funds are incorporated as a limited liability company.

The firm said that each share in the GBTC trust was backed by a proportionate amount of Bitcoin. As of Nov. 18, this amounted to approximately 0.00091502 BTC per GBTC share.

“To be perfectly clear: these digital assets are owned by GBTC and GBTC alone,” clarified  Grayscale.

The firm also shared details about its digital asset custodian Coinbase Custody, a wholly-owned subsidiary of crypto exchange Coinbase. Grayscale included a document signed by Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas which detailed the number of tokens in each crypto product. The document showed that GBTC had 635,235 BTC.

Under the terms by which the trust is incorporated, Grayscale said it is not allowed to borrow or lend the underlying assets to any other parties.

“No other entity, including DCG, Genesis, nor any other Grayscale affiliate, has any control over the digital assets underlying the Grayscale products,” said the company.

The firm reiterated that it would not share on-chain wallet information and Proof-of-Reserve data for security reasons – something that drew a fair amount of criticism from industry watchers last week. On-chain analysts later took it upon themselves to trace the identities of GBTC addresses on the blockchain, identifying 432 addresses linked to the entity.

At the time of writing, GBTC shares were trading at a 42% discount to Net Asset Value (NAV).