TL;DR Breakdown
- Grayscale holds 70 percent of Bitcoin held by publicly traded firms
- Institutional investors show increased interest in crypto custodial service providers
In the wake of growing institutional interest in the crypto industry, crypto firm BitGo and Grayscale now hold $16 billion worth of crypto-asset in their custody.
Several institutional investors stormed the crypto space, with MicroStrategy buying $425 million worth of Bitcoin in August and September.
Since MicroStrategy Bitcoin acquisition, they now own over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin as firms that offer custodial services like BitGo and Grayscale are now in demand.
BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said that they are experiencing unprecedented interest from institutional investors. He attributes this to the economic impact of the pandemic and the price surge Bitcoin experienced this year.
Bitcoin after Christmas again broke a new all-time high, hitting $25,000 weeks after breaking into the $20,000 resistance level.
Grayscale holds 70 percent of Bitcoin held by publicly traded companies
Grayscale, on the other hand, its Bitcoin Trust enables investors to trade shares in trusts that hold large amount of Bitcoin.
bybit.com, a platform that monitors Grayscale holding, reveals that the custodial service now holds $16 billion worth of assets under management.
bybit reveals that Grayscale trust holds around 550,000 ($13.91 billion) Bitcoin in total. This constitutes 70 percent of the total Bitcoin held by publicly traded companies, Bitcoin Treasuries reveal.
BitGo crypto custody, Paypal rumours
The custodial service provider manages all 115,000 Bitcoin ($2.6 billion) held in exchange for WBTC, an ERC-20 token representing Bitcoin. The crypto firm also are a prime broker for institutional investors.
The firm has been of service to institutional investors since 2013 after it launched its multi-signature wallet. It also launched BitGo trust, the first qualified custodian purpose-built for storing digital assets.
Despite this, the firm was recently rumoured to be in talks with Paypal for a potential takeover. However, these rumours were put to rest after Belshe said in an interview with Fortune that the payment firm was not acquiring them.
He said again in another interview that BitGo is an independent firm and has not been acquired.
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