Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein steps down

• 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 in opposition to 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 printed on Monday, Mintzberg joins Grayscale from Goldman Sachs, the place he was the International Head of Technique for Asset and Wealth Administration.

The brand new Grayscale CEO additionally held outstanding positions at BlackRock, OppenheimerFunds and Invesco.

“As we place Grayscale for its subsequent section of development, excited to welcome Peter Mintzberg as Grayscale’s CEO, efficient August 15. Becoming a member of from Goldman Sachs, Peter has 20+ years of expertise throughout outstanding asset managers, together with BlackRock, OppenheimerFunds & Invesco,” Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Grayscale dad or mum firm Digital Foreign money 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 in opposition to the US Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC).

“Michael guided Grayscale from $60 million to ~$30 billion of property underneath administration and thru its historic court docket victory in opposition to the Securities and Alternate Fee, which enabled Grayscale to uplist the primary spot Bitcoin ETF to NYSE Arca alongside the biggest gamers in conventional finance,” Silbert stated in a press release.

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 large and one prone to have led to this situation.

Nevertheless, Balchunas nonetheless sees Sonnenshein’s exit as a “massive shakeup” that comes as Grayscale was “simply starting to see inflows once more.”

BlackRock’s $IBIT surpasses Grayscale’s $GBTC in property

Because the information of Sonnenshein’s exit hits the market, the spot Bitcoin ETF market is seeing a shake up too.

It is because BlackRock’s $IBIT has surpassed $GBTC as largest spot Bitcoin ETF in property underneath administration.

Notably, $IBIT at the moment holds $17.94 billion value of BTC, in comparison with $GBTC’s $17.81 billion, in response to knowledge shared by Coinbase Merchants.