According to a pro forma financials in its most recent filing, Bitcoin ETF provider Grayscale has disclosed some information on its spin-off fund, the Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC), including a more appealing 0.15% fee than the uplisted mothership GBTC product.
An example of how much Bitcoin (BTC) Grayscale will donate to the mini fund is also given in the filing: 63,204 bitcoin, or 10% of the current assets in GBTC. The holders of GBTC shares will immediately be issued shares of the BTC trust. (Pro forma financial statements are forecasts of future costs and income that are derived from previous performance and future goals of a business.)
The goal of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust was to provide investors in GBTC with a less expensive option that would put it more competitively with other bitcoin ETFs that were authorized back in January.
The current shareholders of GBTC are also exempt from capital gains tax as a result of this spinoff, meaning their investments will immediately transfer into the new fund. If they choose to go to a rival product with a cheaper cost, certain early-stage GBTC investors with profits in the thousands of percentages would be subject to a large taxable event.
Grayscale’s GBTC was first made available through a private placement more than ten years ago. It has a rather high 1.5% fee. The shares were first offered for sale over-the-counter in the middle of 2015. This persisted until GBTC was uplisted to NYSE Arca as a spot Bitcoin ETF in January 2024.
At slightly over $17.5 billion, BlackRock’s IBIT fund is Grayscale’s closest competitor, with assets under management now under control at around $19.6 billion.