$33 billion AUM crypto fund manager Grayscale has secretly filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday. The company has now joined a number of crypto firms seeking to go public, with USDC issuer Circle’s IPO becoming massively successful.
In an official announcement on July 14, Grayscale said it submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the SEC. The filing didn’t disclose the number of shares and price range, as the SEC is required to complete the review process for the registration.
Grayscale founder Barry Silbert also took to X to reach out to the wider crypto community and shareholders about the decision to go public.
This comes as multiple companies, such as Galaxy Digital and eToro, filed to go public amid crypto-friendly policies and developments by the Trump administration.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) has $21.72 billion in AuM and Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHE) has $3.4 billion in AUM. These are the two largest ETFs, together contributing almost $25 billion to the total AuM of Grayscale.
The IPO is estimated to be $500-700 million, which accounts for 9.2% of the valuation. The purpose of the IPO is to capitalize on the thawing IPO market and growing institutional interest in crypto. Also, the company may likely use the funds to acquire mining assets and development focused on custody to resist the impact of spot ETFs.
Notably, Circle Internet saw its market cap surge many times after the stock price jumped massively amid demand from institutions. It now has a market cap of $42.24 billion, as per CNBC. Grayscale Investments is expected to see similar demand if the SEC approve its S-1 registration.