Asset manager Grayscale has dropped its 2% management fee to 1.5% as part of its proposed uplift to a spot bitcoin ETF, according to an updated S3 filing.

Grayscale, which has some $27 billion in assets under management (AUM), said it was adding Jane Street, Virtu, Macquarie Capital and ABN AMRO Clearing as authorized participants (APs).

“We did a ton of research to evaluate similar product offerings’ fees, including spot and futures-based ETFs in geographies around the world that have been earlier to open access to bitcoin through the ETF wrapper,” Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, said in an interview.

Sonnenshein declined to comment on any of the other ETF issues such as BlackRock, which said its fee will start at 0.20%, rising to 0.30%.

"It's not surprising to see all the new issuers coming to market here in the US, engaging in a fee war, in a race to the bottom, where they're all starting from scratch and hoping to gain assets from investors," Sonnenshein added.

Grayscale Bitcoin ETF

Ian Allison

Ian Allison is a senior reporter at CoinDesk, focused on institutional and enterprise adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Prior to that, he covered fintech for the International Business Times in London and Newsweek online. He won the State Street Data and Innovation journalist of the year award in 2017, and was runner up the following year. He also earned CoinDesk an honourable mention in the 2020 SABEW Best in Business awards. His November 2022 FTX scoop, which brought down the exchange and its boss Sam Bankman-Fried, won a Polk award, Loeb award and New York Press Club award. Ian graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He holds ETH.