The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was established in the year 2013 by the Digital Currency Group, led by the Founder and CEO - Barry Silbert. It is one of the world’s largest Bitcoin fund and digital currency asset manager. It is a traditional investment vehicle and a trusted authority for digital currency investing. It facilitates shares title with the investor’s name and provides a financial structure, tax advisors and beneficiary transfers under estate laws; thus investors can buy and sell in their brokerage accounts. The platform is like a partner to the user that helps navigate the gray areas of investing in digital currencies.

Grayscale is the sponsor for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH), Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust (BCH), Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETC), Grayscale Litecoin Trust (LTC), Grayscale Horizen Trust (ZEN), Grayscale Zcash Trust (ZEC), Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust (XLM), and it is the manager of Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund LLC.

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust became an SEC - Securities and Exchange Commission reporting company on January 21, 2020, and the first digital currency investment vehicle to receive the status as a reporting company. The shares are eligible in order to be held in certain IRA, 401ks, Roth IRA, brokerage and investor accounts. It also received approval from the FINRA - Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in 2015 to trade the shares publicly on the secondary market, meaning that the investors can buy and sell public shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust under the GBTC symbol. GBTC is traded publicly on the OTCQX - an OYC (over-the-counter) market under the Alternating Reporting Standard.

GBTC is a part of the range that Grayscale offers for traditional financial products. Each product offered as the investment vehicle has its objective for the value of its shares which is based on the digital assets per share, resulting in reflecting the performance of the price, including the product’s digital asset, fees and expenses. The fund conducts Bitcoin price tracking through the TradeBlock XBX Index and the investors can buy the shares of the fund at NAV - the Net Asset Value and sell them after a 6-month lockup period in the secondary market.

Also Read, Investing In Cryptocurrency This 2021

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust works on the process that consists of a private pool of investors that contribute to the funds resulting in acquiring a large amount of Bitcoin. The fund is then released on the public stock market enabling the users to sell shares, wherein the share of the fund will be traded on the Bitcoin price at the time either on a discount or premium basis. However, only accredited investors are eligible to invest in the products that are offered by Grayscale.

The major selling point of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is the security that it offers, as it says that the assets "are safeguarded by a robust security system that uses industry-leading security standards." Many have also discredited GBTC for its annual fee, while on the other end, GBTC states that its annual fee is worth it when it comes to the management of the fund. 

The significant advantage of using the GBTC platform is that it enables the investors to speculate on the cryptocurrency rather than directly buying it. These factors help the user to eliminate the need for custody and storage for the digital asset, safeguarding, placing large buy orders with minimal slippage and providing tax guidance. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust develops its products to offer investors and financial advisors an efficient process through its platform.

Cryptocurrency is a volatile market; since Bitcoin is the first-largest cryptocurrency and is treated as the first top cryptocurrency, it has various investment tools and strategies in the market. One has to make a diligent working process in studying and researching the Bitcoin market and learn updates and developments throughout the process. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, is thus, one of the various platforms that offer an investment vehicle for Bitcoin.