- Michael Sonnenshein has stepped down as CEO of Grayscale.
- Grayscale introduced that Peter Mintzberg is the brand new CEO, efficient August 15, 2024.
- Sonnenshein joined Grayscale in 2014 and was CEO from 2021, overseeing Grayscale’s profitable lawsuit towards SEC.
Michael Sonnenshein has stepped down because the CEO of Grayscale Investments, the crypto asset supervisor providing the spot Bitcoin ETF $GBTC.
Grayscale introduced Sonnenshein’s exit on Monday, revealing his substitute to be Peter Mintzberg.
Per a press launch revealed on Monday, Mintzberg joins Grayscale from Goldman Sachs, the place he was the World Head of Technique for Asset and Wealth Administration.
The brand new Grayscale CEO additionally held distinguished positions at BlackRock, OppenheimerFunds and Invesco.
“As we position Grayscale for its next phase of growth, excited to welcome Peter Mintzberg as Grayscale’s CEO, effective August 15. Joining from Goldman Sachs, Peter has 20+ years of experience across prominent asset managers, including BlackRock, OppenheimerFunds & Invesco,” Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Grayscale father or mother firm Digital Forex Group (DCG), stated.
Sonnenshein helped Grayscale develop
Silbert thanked Sonnenshein, who joined Grayscale in 2014 and had been CEO since 2021, for his management and contribution in direction of Grayscale’s development as a crypto firm.
That features the historic lawsuit and court docket victory towards the US Securities and Change Fee (SEC).
“Michael guided Grayscale from $60 million to ~$30 billion of assets under management and through its historic court victory against the Securities and Exchange Commission, which enabled Grayscale to uplist the first spot Bitcoin ETF to NYSE Arca alongside the largest players in traditional finance,” Silbert stated in an announcement.
Whereas Grayscale and DCG haven’t offered the precise causes for the previous CEO’s exit, observes say it may very well be tied to $GBTC and its efficiency since SEC’s approval in January this yr.
In three months of buying and selling, Grayscale has seen over $17 billion in $GBTC outflows.
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, commented that Grayscale’s outflows are huge and one more likely to have led to this situation.
Nevertheless, Balchunas nonetheless sees Sonnenshein’s exit as a “big shakeup” that comes as Grayscale was “just beginning to see inflows again.”
BlackRock’s $IBIT surpasses Grayscale’s $GBTC in belongings
Because the information of Sonnenshein’s exit hits the market, the spot Bitcoin ETF market is seeing a shake up too.
It’s because BlackRock’s $IBIT has surpassed $GBTC as largest spot Bitcoin ETF in belongings beneath administration.
Notably, $IBIT at the moment holds $17.94 billion value of BTC, in comparison with $GBTC’s $17.81 billion, in response to information shared by Coinbase Merchants.
