Cryptocurrency investment firm, Grayscale, now controls more than 2% of the current Bitcoin (BTC) in circulation after its latest buying spree
Cryptocurrency fund manager Grayscale Investments added more than $180 million to its Bitcoin Trust last week. The investment firm now has roughly $4.9 billion in assets under management (AUM) of its Bitcoin Trust following the latest acquisitions.
According to data obtained from information platform Bybt, Grayscale bought 17,000 BTC over the last seven days, worth roughly $180 million. Following the acquisitions of the bitcoins, the investment firm now holds 449,900 coins, currently worth around $4.9 billion.
The 449,000 BTC in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust means that the company now controls 2.4% of the total Bitcoin in circulation. According to Coinmarketcap, there are currently 18,502,725 in circulation and Grayscale controls nearly 500,000 of them.
Bitcoin is capped at 21 million BTC coins, which means that we have roughly 2.5 million BTC left to be mined, or around 11.9% of the total supply. If Grayscale were to stop buying Bitcoin today, then the company would still control more than 2% of the total BTC supply after the remaining 2.5 million bitcoins have been mined.
Grayscale ready for MicroStrategy competition
The crypto space has seen another company take a significant bet on Bitcoin. MicroStrategy is going all out on Bitcoin after the company recently spent $425 million to buy a total of 38,250 bitcoins. MicroStrategy spent over $400 million on bitcoins in less than two months.
Grayscale’s CEO Barry Silbert jokingly said via a tweet on September 15 that the two companies were now in a buying race for the leading cryptocurrency.
Although Grayscale is buying bitcoins faster than they are currently mined, it is nothing to worry about. The investment firm is buying bitcoins already in circulation, with Grayscale referring to its transactions as ‘in-kind’ exchanges.
MicroStrategy started betting on Bitcoin last month and intends to go big with cryptocurrencies. However, Grayscale is now one of the largest cryptocurrency fund managers in the world; with $5.8 billion in assets under management that are mostly in cryptocurrencies. Grayscale’s crypto trust includes other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP, Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), Litecoin (LTC) and Horizen (ZEN).