Grayscale Proposes 0.15% Fee For Its Bitcoin Mini Trust Fund: Details

Asset management firm Grayscale has disclosed new details about its new Bitcoin Mini Trust fund, a “spin-off” of the GBTC exchange-traded fund (ETF). The new fund, which was first announced in March, is expected to operate independently and offer a cost-effective investment option to GBTC shareholders.

Grayscale Offers Industry-Low Fee With New Fund

According to a recent filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), asset manager Grayscale plans to set the fees for its new Bitcoin Mini Trust at one-tenth of the current 1.5% fee for GBTC. 

The 0.15% fee would make the fund the cheapest amongst the 11 Bitcoin ETFs approved in early January, followed by Franklin Templeton’s fund at 0.19%.

The filing revealed that Grayscale intends to disburse 63,620 bitcoins, or 10% of the Bitcoin held by GBTC at the beginning of the year (equivalent to roughly $4 billion), towards the Mini Trust’s initial distribution. 

This $4 billion distribution would make the fund the fourth-largest Bitcoin spot ETF by asset under management (AUM), behind BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity FBTC, and Grayscale’s GBTC itself.

As earlier reported by Bitcoinist, existing GBTC shareholders will receive stock in Grayscale Mini Trust. The asset manager plans to list the fund on the New York Stock Exchange Arca under the ticker “BTC” and expects the product to begin trading on the exchange immediately after the initial distribution.

The Numbers Are Still Hypothetical: Bloomberg Analyst

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas took to the X platform to share his opinion on the latest update on Grayscale’s new Mini Trust. “This is pro-forma financials and, as such, hypothetical,” Balchunas wrote in a post on X.

For context, pro forma financials refer to a collection of financial statements that use hypothetical assumptions to support investment proposals. This means that there might still be some changes before the fund starts trading.

UPDATE: so this is pro-forma financials and as such hypothetical. It doesn’t nec mean $BTC will be 15bps. But the good news is they had to pick a number for this and knew ppl would be watching and they decided on 15bps. Anyway, do with that what you will. Updates as I get them!…

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 20, 2024

Balchunas noted in his post:

It doesn’t nec mean BTC will be 15bps. But the good news is they had to pick a number for this and knew [people] would be watching, and they decided on 15bps.

This development comes while investors continue to withdraw funds from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust since its debut at the beginning of the year. According to SoSo Value, GBTC recorded a net outflow of $45.82 million in the past week.

Bitcoin price breaks above $65,000 again on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView

Featured image from Business Wire, chart from TradingView