Grayscale, the company that holds the largest amount of bitcoin (BTC) reserves, second only to Satoshi Nakamoto, released a statement assuring that it is “unaffected” by the recent events that triggered FTX’s bankruptcy. However, related companies have issued warning signs that worry investors.
According to the company, Grayscale’s reserves “are reflected is historical public records” and have been evaluated by outside auditors. The company, which allows investors to gain exposure to traditional financial products, with the price of bitcoin, also stated that they only hold bitcoin as the underlying asset for the investment products they offer (GBTC).
These bitcoin funds are held by Coinbase Custody, a company that regularly accounts for this balance, according to Grayscale. Bitcointresouries.net indicates that these funds are 635,236 BTC. For its part, Grayscale also disseminated details of the balances of each of its products, as a result of the lack of trust that has been generated after FTX declared bankruptcy.
Coinbase frequently performs on-chain validation. Due to security suspicions, we do not make such on-chain wallet information or confirmation information publicly available through a cryptographic reserve test or other advanced cryptographic accounting procedure.
– Grayscale
Grayscale also assures that the escrow agreement the company maintains with Coinbase Custody prohibits such funds from being used in loans of any kind or otherwise encumbered.
No other entity, including DCG [Digital Currency Group], Genesis or any other Grayscale affiliate, has control over the digital assets underlying Grayscale’s products. Each of our products carries prohibitions identical to those described in the GBTC Trust Agreement.
– Grayscale
A ripple effect that could have more affected?
Digital Currency Group is a venture capital company that has 5 subsidiaries, including Grayscale and Genesis. The latter lending company, the largest of its kind in the ecosystem, halted the delivery of funds two days ago, after a cascade of withdrawals set off the alert, as reported by CryptoNews.
Following the FTX crash, a wave of rumors spread about the possibility of Digital Currency Group dissolving the GBTC bitcoin and ETHE ether trusts, with the aim of sustaining Genesis liquidity.
As CryptoNews reported, GBTC has depreciated 75% since the beginning of the year and the fall of FTX seems to have accentuated this trend.
