Asset Manager Grayscale Introduces Crypto Fund for MakerDAO’s MKR

Grayscale is launching a new single-asset fund for MakerDAO’s governance token.

The new closed-end fund will be available to suitably qualified individual and institutional accredited investors.

Grayscale, the asset management firm behind bitcoin {{BTC}} and ether {{ETH}} exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other crypto investment funds, introduced a new fund on Tuesday that invests in the governance token of decentralized lending platform MakerDAO {{MKR}}.

MKR rose more than 5% to $2,100 in the hour following the news. The token is up nearly 8% in the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader market CoinDesk 20 Index, which has been mostly flat.

The Grayscale MakerDAO Trust is open to eligible individual and institutional accredited investors and has the same structure as the firm’s other single-asset trusts, according to a press release. This means it is a closed-end fund with no direct withdrawals possible, which could lead to price deviations between the fund’s share in secondary markets and the underlying asset.

Read more: GBTC Discount Narrows; Here’s Why It Matters

Maker is one of the largest protocols in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, governed by a community of token holders or a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Holders of MKR tokens can participate in the decision-making process and vote on proposals. The protocol manages over $7 billion in crypto and real-world assets (RWA), including US Treasury Bonds, and issues $5 billion worth of DAI, the third-largest stablecoin in the market.

The protocol is currently undergoing a major overhaul called the “End Game”, which was introduced by its founder Rune Christensen and involves the issuance of upgraded versions of MKR and DAI.

Read more: Rune Christensen Reveals He Wants to Remake Maker and Kill DAI

The offering follows Grayscale’s newly launched single-asset funds for decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) project Bittensor’s {{TAO}} token and layer-1 blockchain Sui {{SUI}}. The company also launched a decentralized AI-focused fund about a month ago that invested in a range of cryptocurrencies, including near {{NEAR}}, render {{RNDR}}, and filecoin {{FIL}}.

UPDATE (August 13, 14:00 UTC time): Added MKR price action following the announcement.