Peter Mintzberg is officially preparing to take a crypto ETP specialist public, though he and his team are publicly keeping mum on most of the details so far.

Yesterday, the folks at Grayscale Investments [profile], revealed that they have filed a draft S-1 with the U.S. SEC; the Grayscale folks publicly announced, in a two-paragraph statement, that they had "confidentially submitted" the draft registration. Yet the asset manager's team also confirms that their planned IPO's precise size (i.e. number of shares) and pricing are both still TBD. (I guess this means they're not selling to a mutual fund titan.)

Stamford, Connecticut-based Grayscale was first founded in 2013 and specializes products that invest in digital assets, aka cryptocurrencies. Grayscale now has $43 billion in AUM (per RIABiz), 117 employees (not including clerical staff, per the most recent form ADV* for its Grayscale Advisors subsidiary), and more than 35 investment products (per Reuters). (So far, Grayscale's IPO filing move has been covered by a host of other publications, including Barron's, Bloomberg, ETF.com, and the Wall Street Journal.)

The revelation of the filing of Grayscale's S-1 comes less than a week a new chief marketing officer, Ramona Boston, joined Grayscale, as expected back in the spring.

Grayscale is one of the spot cryptocurrency ETP pioneers. Its flagship fund, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), debuted in 2013. Grayscale later fought the SEC in court over the agency's refusal to approve a plan to convert GBTC into an exchange-traded product. In 2023, Grayscale won that fight, paving the way for the SEC to approve not only GBTC's conversion but also the debut of other spot bitcoin ETPs; the conversion and initial launches took place on January 11, 2024. Grayscale also offers ETFs.

Since the spot bitcoin ETP floodgates opened in January 2024, Grayscale has suffered significant outflows ($23.801 billion in 2024, including $5.916 billion just in January 2024) as some investors have shifted their bitcoin ETP assets into competitors' funds featuring lower expense ratios. Yet GBTC (now called the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF) still has $22.035 billion in AUM**, only down by $6.584 billion (23 percent) since the spot bitcoin ETP conversion and debut early last year, thanks to the 158-percent rise in bitcoin over those 550 days, now at $119,849.70**.

*Filed on May 8, 2025.
**As of July 14, 2025. 

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