U.S. Global Investors invests over $500k in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust

Institutional investors are gaining access to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies directly and indirectly via crypto funds

U.S. Global Investors has revealed that it bought shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, giving the financial institution indirect exposure to the leading cryptocurrency. The investment manager revealed this latest development in a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday.

According to the SEC filing, U.S. Global Investors bought GBTC worth $566,389 in the second half of the year. The filing showed that the GBTC shares were added to the investment manager’s three mutual funds.

U.S. Global Investors added $302,899 worth of GBTC to its Gold and Precious Metals Fund, and another $222,532 worth of shares were added to its World Precious Minerals Fund. Finally, the firm added $40,958 worth of the shares to its Global Resources Fund.

Following this latest development, GBTC now represents 0.19% of U.S. Global Investors’ total assets in the three mutual funds. Institutional investors have been gaining direct and indirect access to Bitcoin over the past few months.

Some of the financial institutions can’t hold Bitcoin directly. Hence, they gain exposure to the cryptocurrency via other investment vehicles. Peter Schiff stated that the move is not surprising as the U.S. Global Investors CEO also leads Hive Blockchain.

https://twitter.com/PeterSchiff/status/1432395868490117121

U.S. Global Investors is known for investing in the commodities markets, focusing on assets such as Gold, crude oil, minerals and other precious metals. Bitcoin’s performance over the past year has convinced several institutional investors to consider it as a hedge against inflation.

Bitcoin rose to an all-time high close to the $65,000 mark in April. However, the price dipped over the summer, with Bitcoin losing more than 50% of its value at a certain point. The market has been slowly recovering, and Bitcoin is currently trading above $47,000 per coin.

More institutional investors are expected to enter the cryptocurrency market over the next few years, and that could push Bitcoin’s price higher. The approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States could also attract more institutional investors to the market.