Chicago-based financial institution Rothschild Investment Corp, has acquired 265,302 shares in Grayscale’s ETH trust, according to a filing on April 15 with the United States Securities Commission or SEC.
The firm also added more Grayscale Bitcoin trust shares to its holdings, with the latest SEC filing revealing that it increased its tally from 30,454 in January up to 38,346 this month.
Rothschild Investment has been accumulating GBTC since 2017, and the latest filing shows the firm’s appetite for crypto exposure is not slowing down. Ether proponent Ryan Adams, the founder of crypto investment firm Mythos Capital and Bankless, commented on the latest move noting that “BTC is the gateway drug to ETH.”
The brokerage firm’s history spans back to 1908, and it has been investing in crypto for a relatively long time when compared to the mass inflow of institutions who have swooped in during the past 12 months. An SEC filing showed that the firm owned $210,000 worth of GBTC in July 2017, when BTC was priced around $2000.
Founding members Monroe Rothschild and brother in-law Samuel Karger reportedly have no relation to the famed Rothschild family dynasty, much to the confusion of the crypto community despite the New York Times publishing an article that clarified the situation in 1995.
Grayscale is the leading U.S. digital asset manager that offers institutional exposure to crypto, the firm holds roughly 660,000 BTC, which accounts for 3.5% of BTC in circulation.
The firm revealed yesterday that its total assets under management has now reached $50.6 billion, its ETH trust, or ETHE, is now up to more than $7 billion worth of AUM, with its shares currently trading at around $24. GTBC has surpassed $41 billion in AUM, and shares are trading at around $59.