Grayscale has also submitted an S-1 to the U.S. SEC that will convert its Grayscale Near Trust into an exchange-traded fund. The fund will trade on NYSE Arca under the ticker of GSNR once the regulatory approvals are received. The move is a sign of a greater institutional interest in NEAR, as crypto ETFs drift out of Bitcoin and Ethereum. At the moment, the shares of the Grayscale Near Trust are traded in the OTCQB market with the ticker GSNR.
In case of approval, the product will be converted to trade on NYSE Arca under the same ticker. An effective takeover would enhance liquidity, disclosure, and accessibility to investors and would position the Near Trust as a part of the larger ETF portfolio of Grayscale and allow traditional market participants a more convenient means to be exposed to the NEAR ecosystem. The submission places NEAR in the cadre of an increasing number of digital assets that are entering into managed investment wrappers. With a reputation of introducing an infrastructure scalability and developer friendliness concept, NEAR has been gaining traction within the Web3 communities, yet ETF exposure can possibly represent a new move toward greater institutional acceptance.
The decision to take the ETF form suggests that Grayscale is betting that diversified crypto exposure will not end with the mega-cap assets, but continue to layer-1 protocols that have vibrant ecosystems. Similar to any other ETF applications, the proposal will undergo the SEC review process, the time and the results of which are unknown. This would be decided based on the market structure, the comfort and custody of the regulator of the underlying asset. Nevertheless, even the very filing is an indication of a change in tone: crypto ETFs are no longer just an experimental edge case, but have already turned into a competition among asset managers trying to attain an advantage as an early mover.
Under regulatory permission, the Grayscale Near ETF would become the most recent of a group of digital asset-traditional finance intermediated products. It would give investors a controlled entry point to NEAR, and would not need the complexity of end-of-custody tokens. To the market, it is another indication that the ETF race is no longer focusing on Bitcoin, and that altcoins that have good fundamentals are now squarely on the radar of Wall Street.
The submission places NEAR in the cadre of an increasing number of digital assets that are entering into managed investment wrappers. With a reputation of introducing an infrastructure scalability and developer friendliness concept, NEAR has been gaining traction within the Web3 communities, yet ETF exposure can possibly represent a new move toward greater institutional acceptance. The decision to take the ETF form suggests that Grayscale is betting that diversified crypto exposure will not end with the mega-cap assets, but continue to layer-1 protocols that have vibrant ecosystems.
Similar to any other ETF applications, the proposal will undergo the SEC review process, the time and the results of which are unknown. This would be decided based on the market structure, the comfort and custody of the regulator of the underlying asset. Nevertheless, even the very filing is an indication of a change in tone: crypto ETFs are no longer just an experimental edge case, but have already turned into a competition among asset managers trying to attain an advantage as an early mover.
Under regulatory permission, the Grayscale Near ETF would become the most recent of a group of digital asset-traditional finance intermediated products. It would give investors a controlled entry point to NEAR, and would not need the complexity of end-of-custody tokens. To the market, it is another indication that the ETF race is no longer focusing on Bitcoin, and that altcoins that have good fundamentals are now squarely on the radar of Wall Street.
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