Grayscale Appoints New CEO Amid Massive GBTC Outflows

American asset management firm Grayscale Investments has appointed Peter Mintzberg as its new CEO. This appointment is considered a major milestone for the firm since the exit of Michael Sonnenshein, its former CEO. While Sonnenshein lead the firm to securing the spot Bitcoin ETF approval, Mintzberg will now be tasked with growing the product.

Grayscale and the GBTC Outflow Menace

Noteworthy, firm’s former CEO resigned about three months ago but his reason for stepping down remains unknown. The new CEO has an extensive background and several years of experience in the financial sector. Before coming to the firm, the Harvard University graduate worked at Goldman Sachs.

For almost four years, he served as Global Head of Strategy at the financial institution. Mintzberg also worked as the COO and Head of Strategy at BlackRock. With his track record, the Digital Currency Group subsidiary may eventually navigate the competitive spot crypto market where it has recorded massive failures.

Grayscale is experiencing numerous outflow from its spot Bitcoin ETF product – GBTC. For the last few months, the outflows has consistently increased, outpacing inflows from other spot Bitcoin ETFs. While the GBTC product has recorded over 19,548 BTC outflow, its Ethereum ETF crossed $2 billion outflow earlier this month.

Will Mintzberg Initiate Competitive Shakeup?

A few days ago, the firm’s ETHE ended its 19-day outflow streak. This triggered a significant improvement for Ether ETFs. On August 12, the ETF saw neither inflow nor outflow, suggesting a potential shift in investors stance.

In the case of GBTC, many market observers opined that the high management fee contributed to its outflows and decline in investors interest. Considering that the BlackRock rival capped the fee for its Mini Ethereum Trust ETF at 0.15%, the expectation is that it would see better result. So far, the Grayscale Ethereum ETF has only seen slightly better results.

With Mintzberg coming on board, eyes are on him to enact policies that might reverse this negative trend. He could also lead the firm into considering other crypto products like spot Solana ETF or even an XRP ETF.

There is no denying that Grayscale is committed to expanding its crypto footprint. On Tuesday, it announced the launch of its MakerDAO Trust, a new single-asset cryptocurrency investment fund through private placement.