Grayscale Investments is currently the world’s largest digital currency asset manager. The firm began only five short years ago and 2013 and has built on their platform at an incredible pace. In April alone, Grayscale Investments launched four new trusts based on four different crypto assets to continue to expand their offerings. This past week, they continued their expansion by adding ZEN Investment Trust, their ninth cryptocurrency investment offering.
The ZEN Investment Trust is centered around the privacy coin ZEN, which was formerly known as Zcash. Like many of the offerings provided by Grayscale, the trust focuses on the one single coin. In this same light, Grayscale offers separate investment funds for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zach, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and XRP. In addition, they also offer a diversified fund which provides exposure to all of the top crypto assets.
ZEN is the cryptocurrency used on the Horizen network. To date, ZEN has an approximate market capitalization of about $80 million according to a Coinmarketcap.com. In total, the Horizen network focuses on giving users the ability to control their digital footprint by enabling privacy-enabled services around things such as internet browsing and messaging.
Rob Vigilone, the co-founder and president of the Horizen platform, believes the ZEN Investment Trust is a significant accomplishment. He said, “ Grayscale conducts unparalleled research and due diligence on their investment products, striving to offer regulated and professionally managed exposure to the digital currency market for institutional and accredited investors worldwide. Their values align seamlessly with Horizen’s mission to promote the growth of digital currencies, the blockchain, and privacy to a diverse and global community.” He went on to say, “It signals to the market that we’re a quality project.”
The ZEN Investment Trust promises to give investors a convenient way to get involved with the ZEN cryptocurrency; however, at this point, it is not available for the everyday investor. For its first year of operation, the product will be limited to institutional and accredited investors only. After a year, retails and individual investors alike will be able to take advantage of the product. This same process was used for the rest of the products that Grayscale used, meaning that trusts like the Bitcoin Investment Trust and Ethereum Classic Investment Trust are both available to individual investors at this point.
For Grayscale specifically, the ZEN announcement continues their push for privacy-enabling protocols and application which expand beyond just peer-to-peer value transfer. Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale, said “We’re living in an age where privacy is rapidly deteriorating – almost at an alarming rate. So, it’s our belief that as time goes on, you’re going to see people and companies actively paying a premium for privacy.” Sonnenshein stressed to the market and investors alike that their choice to move forward with ZEN is not a response to market demand, but rather a push to allow investors to get their hands on a hidden gem.
In 2018 alone, Grayscale Investment has successfully raised more than $250 million for its investment trusts.
