Recently, Grayscale consecutively launched the Optimism Trust Fund and the Lido Trust Fund. Tokens SUI and ZEN among its trust funds have also maintained an upward trend despite a pullback. Are the trust funds launched by Grayscale a collection of blue-chip tokens, and will they be profitable in the long run? This article provides an overview of the 26 cryptocurrency trusts currently launched by Grayscale and their investment returns.

Grayscale Encryption Trust Overview

Grayscale is a digital asset management company established in 2013, primarily providing a variety of cryptocurrency trust funds aimed at offering investors a legitimate and regulated investment channel. As one of the world's largest cryptocurrency asset management companies, it manages tens of billions of dollars in assets. To date, Grayscale has launched 26 cryptocurrency trusts.

Grayscale Trust Funds are a series of cryptocurrency investment products offered by Grayscale, allowing investors to indirectly hold cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum without directly purchasing and managing them. Each trust fund is linked to a specific cryptocurrency asset, such as Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE). Through these trust funds, investors can buy and sell shares of cryptocurrency assets on public markets like traditional stocks.

In addition to single-coin trust funds, the combination funds of multiple coins launched by Grayscale also have significant investment reference meaning. Currently, apart from ETFs, Grayscale's cryptocurrency trusts are mainly divided into three stages.

  • PRIVATE PLACEMENT: Grayscale products are first launched in a private placement format, allowing qualified investors to participate in cryptocurrency investments. The initial restriction period for stocks purchased in private placements is one year. Currently, Grayscale Sui Trust, Grayscale Lido DAO Trust, etc., belong to this stage.

  • PUBLIC QUOTATION: A publicly quoted market format that allows all investors to participate in cryptocurrency investments. However, due to the lack of a continuous repurchase plan, publicly traded stocks may trade at a premium or discount to their underlying asset value. Currently, MANA, GLNK, DEFG, etc., belong to this stage.

  • SEC REPORTING: Grayscale products are the first company to report to the SEC. The requirements for reporting to the SEC will further raise disclosure levels, providing greater transparency for investors and subjecting the products to additional regulatory oversight. Currently, ETCG, ZCSH, HZEN, etc., belong to this stage.

It is difficult to outperform BTC in the long run.

According to reports, Grayscale had a significant impact on cryptocurrency during the bull market from 2020 to 2021, during which Grayscale substantially increased the asset scale of its Bitcoin trust, bringing in a large number of institutional investors into the crypto field. However, the performance of other cryptocurrency tokens launched by Grayscale during this period has been mixed in the short term and has struggled to outperform BTC in the long term.


To track the investment return rate of Grayscale funds, the author recorded the token prices at the time of the trust's launch and the token prices on December 23, creating the chart above. From a temporal perspective, Grayscale's launch of cryptocurrency trust products was primarily concentrated in 2018 and 2021, which often corresponded to peak points or the latter stages of bull markets. This phenomenon may relate to the relatively long cycle and the need for a mature market before the launch of Grayscale funds. This December, Grayscale began to focus on launching trust funds again; will this break the cycle of short-term peaks?

In terms of investment returns, in the long run, the tokens that present positive investment returns (including BTC, ETH) only account for about 48%, which is even lower than the random 50% probability of tossing a coin. Moreover, their investment return rates are far below BTC, showing a long-term negative EV.

In the short term, the tokens launched by Grayscale have indeed had glorious moments, but most occurred before their launch. XRP has not broken its previous high even after a strong rebound, and ZEN has only managed to maintain an 18% investment return after three consecutive days of increases. Although some star tokens have reached peaks after their launch, in terms of long-term annualized returns, after a lengthy 7-year holding period, their interest rates are below 10%. However, different timing strategies have a more significant impact on investment returns; if Grayscale concept tokens are accumulated at the bottom during a bear market, almost all participants outperform the average increase in bull markets. Observing targets that have not shown obvious movements at this time may lead to good increases next year.

Grayscale's holdings of tokens have different indicative effects at different time periods; in this sense, the Grayscale selection does indeed exist.