Grayscale Creates New Trusts Based on 2 Altcoins

Grayscale, one of the largest Bitcoin ETF issuers, delivered this news today via a press release. The Lido DAO and Optimism Trusts will both offer exposure to the protocols' respective tokens.

Grayscale is offering two new investment vehicles – a Trust based on Lido DAO (LDO) and one on Optimism (OP). Both trusts are now available.

The firm said that Lido DAO and Optimism are both contributing to the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem in their own way. Both assets have also seen a similar price trajectory over the last year.

Grayscale Creates New Trusts for 2 Altcoins

Grayscale, which is best known as the largest Bitcoin ETF issuer, announced the new ventures in a press release today. The Lido DAO and Optimism Trusts will both offer exposure to the protocols’ tokens. However, the firm did highlight Ethereum, the underlying blockchain for both protocols.

“Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and Grayscale Optimism Trust provide investors with exposure to protocols helping to increase Ethereum’s efficiency, security, scalability, and adoption within the broader DeFi ecosystem – playing a critical role in the Ethereum story,” Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary said.

The firm has used this tactic before, launching a non-ETF Trust that offers exposure to the crypto asset. Grayscale converted a pre-existing Trust product into a Bitcoin ETF and created two new trusts in November. It created an XRP Trust at the start of the month, while other firms filed for an ETF and one for XLM a few weeks later.

Both protocols share a few similarities beyond their use of Ethereum. Optimism, a rollup scaling solution, has seen dramatic price movements in the last year. While the broader crypto bull market has given it new steam, Optimism’s token value suffered from extreme drops earlier this year.

Lido, an Ethereum staking solution, has also had a roller coaster of a year. It suffered from a bug in Solana service in April, which brought massive negative press.

However, there were positive technological developments, like the integration of Chainlink CCIP in October.

In other words, Grayscale may have chosen Lido DAO and Optimism for these impressive rebounds, in addition to their potential to benefit the Ethereum network. Grayscale already has an Ethereum ETF, but it has performed poorly. However, both of these Ethereum-connected products are seeing much stronger momentum.