US trading giant Robinhood is adding two cryptocurrency-related products to its lineup for retail investors.
Investment asset manager Greyscale announced that the firm’s traditional investment vehicles for both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are launching on the Robinhood trading app.
The digital currency investment product Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) was originally called the Bitcoin Investment Trust, created in September of 2013, and gives institutional investors exposure to Bitcoin without the need to personally buy or store it. Currently, the Grayscale BTC Trust has $23.2 billion in assets under management (AUM).
The Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) meanwhile was founded in December of 2017 and now has $8.4 billion in AUM.
Last October, Grayscale announced its intention to convert its Bitcoin trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the company’s global head of ETFs Dave LaValle saying,
“GBTC proves that there’s strong investor demand for physically-backed Bitcoin investment vehicles.”
In November filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that banking giant Morgan Stanley significantly increased its holdings of GBTC.
Back in January, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev mentioned the platform’s goal of adding crypto-related products to its platform.
At time of writing, Robinhood quotes the GBTC price is down 1.08% and trading for $24.75, while ETHE is in the red by 1.6% with value of $19.76.
Bitcoin itself continues the sell-off that began early on Thursday when it was priced above $39,000, down 2.22% on the day and changing hands for $36,189 at time of writing.
Ethereum is also struggling, down sharply from its Thursday high of $2,937 and currently priced at $2,711.
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