The crypto asset manager has seen steady outflows from its flagship Bitcoin ETF, including more than $21 billion last year and $3 billion so far in 2025, even as the wider market surges.
Grayscale Investments Inc. filed publicly for an initial public offering, the latest cryptocurrency-linked company to test public markets under an administration more open to digital assets.
The crypto asset manager had net income of $203.3 million on revenue of $318.7 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with net income of $223.7 million on revenue of $397.9 million a year earlier, according to its filing Thursday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The company in July filed confidentially for a listing.
IPO activity is set to ramp up heading into the end of the year with the end of the US government shutdown, which had curtailed the SEC’s filing review functions. Even with the resumption, there are only a few weeks left in the 2025 calendar for potential debuts when accounting for required waiting periods and holidays.
Stamford, Connecticut-based Grayscale is a unit of Digital Currency Group and part of the conglomerate built by billionaire investor Barry Silbert. In a founder’s letter, Silbert wrote that unlike crypto investment options such as single-token ETFs and pure play digital asset treasuries, Grayscale offers both diversified exposure and disciplined cost management.
Ahead, he sees increasing momentum around the tokenization of various asset classes from private credit to real estate, comparing the growth to the early days of crypto.
Founded in 2013, Grayscale moved early to offer Bitcoin and Ether funds. The firm scored a legal victory in federal court in 2023 with its bid to turn its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into a US ETF that would invest directly in the largest digital coin.
The trust was a closed-end product that sometimes traded at substantial premiums or discounts to its net asset value, prompting Grayscale to push for a conversion to an ETF to ensure trading at par. That move opened up an opportunity for other asset managers to also launch Bitcoin-focused products.
To date, the blockbuster success of the cohort has pushed ETF assets to as much as $169 billion, attracting north of $25 billion in net inflows this year. But the $17 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (ticker GBTC) has been seeing steady outflows, including more than $21 billion last year and another $3 billion pulled in 2025. Analysts often cite its relatively high 1.5% expense ratio as a factor.
Last year, Grayscale debuted a Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC) which sports a 0.15% expense ratio — currently among the lowest in the category. That fund has assets of around $5 billion.
With digital-asset prices booming earlier this year and the Trump administration adopting a friendly stance, many crypto-sector firms announced plans to make public debuts. Gemini Space Station Inc., which is backed by the billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, for instance, started trading in September. But crypto tokens have sold off in recent days, with Bitcoin, the largest, falling to around $100,000 each, down from more than $120,000.
Grayscale now has about $35 billion in assets under management and more than 40 products giving exposure to over 45 tokens, the filing shows. The company has some 120 employees.
In October, Grayscale completed a $250 million private placement of convertible preferred stock. The funds will back its principal investment initiative, enabling the company to deploy capital from its own balance sheet. The investments may include digital asset tokens or Grayscale investment products.
After the IPO, Digital Currency Group will continue to hold the majority of shareholder voting power via its ownership of Class B shares which have ten votes each.
The offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp., Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and Cantor Fitzgerald. The company is expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GRAY.
