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Quick Take

• At least 10 institutions have placed additional bulk pre-orders for the most powerful bitcoin mining hardware since Q4 2020
• Such investments are estimated to have cost institutions more than $500 million to date
• These machines could in total add another 20 EH/s of computing power at full deployment by the end of 2021

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British auction house Christie’s is hosting a sale from February 25 to March 11 during which it will sell the work of popular digital artist Beeple, according to an announcement published Tuesday. 

Beeple has been creating a new work of art every single day since May 2007, creating 5,000 new pieces since then. According to the announcement, the collection of art, titled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” is being called “one of the most unique bodies of work to emerge in the history of digital art.”

The sale will be hosted on a standalone lot, marking the first time Beeple’s work will be sold at a major auction house. It will also mark the first time non-fungible token (NFT) art is sold at an auction house. The sale is a result of a partnership with NFT marketplace MakersPlace. 

“Christie’s has never offered a new media artwork of this scale or importance before,” said Post-War and Contemporary Art Specialist Noah Davis. “Acquiring Beeple’s work is a unique opportunity to own an entry in the blockchain itself created by one of the world’s leading digital artists.”

The sale will start on February 25, with bidding to open at $100. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Ontario Securities Commission has approved a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) just days after the regulator greenlit a similar product.

A receipt dated February 16 grants the Evolve Bitcoin ETF final approval for its prospectus and paves the way for a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Cidel Trust Company, a subsidiary of Cidel Bank Canada, is the fund’s custodian. Gemini is serving as sub-custodian. The receipt was published at 2:57 p.m. ET, public records on SEDAR show.

Evolve followed a similar path to the first-approved Purpose Bitcoin ETF. Purpose also utilized Cidel and Gemini as custodians, and received conditional approval to trade on TSX. As with Purpose’s ETF, EY serves as the auditor.

Once listed, Evolve ETF will trade alongside other bitcoin products, including The Bitcoin Fund, a closed-end fund that first listed in April 2020. Other prospectuses on SEDAR, the regulator’s filing database, hint at the possibility for other bitcoin-centric ETFs to receive approval.

The U.S. has yet to give the nod to a bitcoin ETF, but crypto advocates see the recent moves out of Ontario as a sign that a stateside approval might be on the horizon. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Michael Sonnenshein took the reigns of cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale Investments earlier this year. 

At the helm of the more than $30 billion investment firm, Sonnenshein is charting a course for a broad expansion of the business, which is best known for its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

“We brought in $5.7 billion last year,” Sonnenshein said. “We are launching new products, we are investing in technology, we’re building out the various teams, it’s really about continuing to stay ahead of the growth we are experiencing at really an unprecedented rate.”

New inflows into the firm helped push Grayscale’s assets under management (AUM) to new highs, while also lining its pockets with fee-based revenue. Estimates by The Block Research suggest Grayscale has brought in more than $109 million year-to-date. 

In addition to new hires, the firm has a plan for upgrading its GBTC product to an exchange-traded fund should the regulators ultimately approve such a product. 

“We spent the better part of 2017 in SEC registration for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust,” Sonnenshein told The Block. “And we made a lot of progress with the commission and ultimately realized the regulatory environment wasn’t ready for a bitcoin ETF and we pulled out of that process.”

He added:

“But we hope in the future, like we were planning to in 2017, to register and uplift GBTC onto a national securities exchange as a bonafide ETF.”

Still, competition is mounting, with BlockFi and Osprey recently rolling out new funds. There’s also Bitwise, which has seen its assets under management climb towards $1 billion in recent months. 

In this episode of The Scoop, Sonnenshein breaks down its hiring goals for 2021 as well as the following:

• What a bitcoin ETF approval means for Grayscale’s GBTC
• Why mounting competition will result in fees “absolutely” coming down
• Why he wants to convince a nation-state to buy GBTC
• The firm’s #DropGold campaign and plans for future marketing campaigns
• The technology investments Grayscale is making in its platform to make the investing process more seamless

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.