- On December 12, Grayscale revealed that it had incorporated the Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and the Grayscale Optimism Trust into its lineup of cryptocurrency investment offerings.
- These trusts are positioned to appeal to investors seeking exposure to protocols driving Ethereum’s broader adoption.
Grayscale Investments, the largest cryptocurrency asset manager globally, has introduced two new investment trusts focused on the governance tokens for Lido DAO and Optimism. These trusts are offered solely to qualified individual and corporate investors who fulfill certain financial criteria, including a net worth of at least $1 million or an annual household income of $300,000.
Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, emphasized the crucial roles of Lido and Optimism in enhancing Ethereum’s capabilities. She noted that Lido is fundamental in democratizing staking on Ethereum, while Optimism is vital for allowing Ethereum to compete with newer, faster Layer 1 blockchain. Additionally, she highlighted that the Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and Grayscale Optimism Trust offer investors access to important protocols that enhance Ethereum’s efficiency, security, and scalability, ultimately contributing to its broader adoption within the DeFi ecosystem and enriching Ethereum’s overall narrative.
Why Lido and Optimism Are Attracting Grayscale’s Investment
According to their press release issued on Thursday, Lido enables liquid staking solutions for the Ethereum network, making staking more accessible and thereby working to enhance its security. LDO is integrated into Grayscale’s Financials Crypto Sector, comprising crypto assets that facilitate financial transactions and services. Currently, Lido holds $40 billion in total value locked (TVL), solidifying its status as the leading DeFi protocol in terms of TVL.
On the other hand, the Optimism Trust utilizes its OP technology stack, based on Optimistic Rollups, to tackle liquidity fragmentation while enhancing scalability and reducing costs. With around $800 million in TVL, Optimism plays a key role in Ethereum’s scaling strategy and supports the Superchain, a network of interconnected blockchains, including Coinbase’s Base and Uniswap’s Unichain. The firm stated that OP is included in Grayscale’s Smart Contract Platforms Crypto Sector, which features crypto assets aimed at facilitating financial services and transactions.
Grayscale’s new investment trusts are now open for daily subscriptions by accredited individual and institutional investors. These trusts are designed specifically for investing in the LDO and OP tokens, similar to Grayscale’s existing single-asset trusts. In August, Grayscale broadened its range of products by introducing trusts for Sky (formerly known as MakerDAO) and Bittensor. Shortly after, the company also established trusts for Sui and Aave (AAVE), following the creation of an XRP Trust in September. These new products have achieved impressive returns of 428%, 321%, and 92%, significantly surpassing the overall performance of the crypto market, which averaged a return of 60% in 2024.
Both LDO and OP have experienced significant price increases, with OP rising 4.35% and LDO over 6% in the last 24 hours on CoinMarketCap. Grayscale is further expanding its crypto ETF portfolio with a recent application for a Solana ETF and the conversion of its Digital Large Cap Fund into a full ETF, as per the CNF report.
