Grayscale Launches Investment Fund for Pyth Network's Native Token PYTH

Grayscale Pyth Trust, which is only open to qualified investors, offers exposure to “the governance token powering the Pyth network,” Grayscale said.

Grayscale Investments has launched an investment fund for the Pyth Network’s native token, PYTH, the asset manager announced on Feb. 18.

Grayscale Pyth Trust, which is only available to qualified investors, offers exposure to “the governance token powering the Pyth network,” according to Grayscale.

Pyth provides market data — including for cryptocurrencies, equities and commodities — to over 90 blockchain networks, including Solana, using decentralized oracles.

Oracles connect offchain data sources, like prices on centralized exchanges, to smart contracts on blockchain networks.

Around 95% of decentralized applications on the Solana network use Pyth’s price feeds, a testament to Pyth’s “strong market position,” said Grayscale.

“By providing accurate and real-time data feeds, Pyth plays a critical role in the Solana ecosystem and is set to benefit from Solana's growth,” said Grayscale.

The trust aims to provide “higher-beta and higher-upside opportunities” from Solana’s continued growth, said Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale’s head of product and research, in a statement.

Launched in 2023, PYTH has a market capitalization of over $750 million, according to CoinGecko.

Solana’s growing pains

Solana has seen explosive growth since 2023, largely due to a surge in memecoin trading activity.

The total value locked on the chain increased from about $1.4 billion to over $9 billion in 2024, according to DefiLlama. It reached a peak of over $12 billion in January.

However, insider selling and massive losses for retail traders are souring sentiment in Solana memecoins, leading to rising short interest in SOL (SOL).

On Feb. 14, Libra (LIBRA), a cryptocurrency that was supposedly endorsed by Argentine President Javier Milei, lost about $4.4 billion in market capitalization hours after it launched.

Despite the slowdown in memecoin trading, Solana still generates more revenue than its rival Ethereum, according to DefiLlama.

Expanding Grayscale's suite of crypto funds

The new PYTH fund adds to Grayscale's lineup of single-asset crypto investment products.

Grayscale launched an investment fund for Dogecoin (DOGE) in January, making it the most popular memecoin by market capitalization.

Grayscale also launched two new investment funds for Lido’s and Optimism’s governance tokens in December — LDO and OP (OP), respectively.

It also added about 35 altcoins — including Worldcoin (WLD) and Rune (RUNE) — to a list of assets that are “being considered” for future investment products.

The asset manager is best known for its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), which are Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds, respectively.