Coinbase Receives Multi-Billion Dollar Crypto Transfer From Grayscale

One of the world’s largest digital currency asset management firms plans to execute a transfer of billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. This transfer would be one of the most significant single transfers ever witnessed in the crypto world.

Through the transfer, Grayscale Investments plans to move its underlying assets for its products to Coinbase, an American based crypto wallet provider and trading platform. In particular, the assets will be transferred to Coinbase Custody, which will serve as the custodian of the assets. The value of assets expected to be transferred to Coinbase is close to $3 billion, and the transfer is scheduled to be completed in less than 12 hours.

Grayscale has a wide range of holdings including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, and other altcoin tokens. The investment firm also comes with its publicly quoted cryptocurrency trusts and its Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund. The fund uses a market-cap-weighted portfolio to provide clients with exposure to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. All these holdings will now be overseen by Coinbase Custody which operates as an independent, standalone capitalized business.

According to Sam McIngvale, Chief Executive of Coinbase Custody, Grayscale and Coinbase are leaders in the provision of safe, secure, trustworthy, and regulated access to digital assets. Grayscale is an established, trusted, and valuable partner to its clients, and its service providers should be the same added McIngvale.

Timing of the move

Grayscale’s migration to Coinbase has come at a time where regulators are on high alert as far as cryptocurrencies go. The news about Facebook’s plans to launch its cryptocurrency has increased regulator interest in cryptocurrencies and investors are waiting to see the measures regulators come up with.

Bitcoin trading has benefited from the interest generated by Facebook’s announcement of Libra, and the leading crypto saw its price rise. There are also expectations that some Silicon Valley giants are looking at their options with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a source of revenue. These rumors have encouraged traders to buy Bitcoin (BTC) as the coin’s value is bound to increase in the next few months if similar news keeps coming.

Having a firm as big as Grayscale move it’s holdings to Coinbase Custody is a move that will grab the attention of crypto traders. Coinbase reports that it has acquired 30 million users since it launched in 2012 and 8 million new users have joined the platform in the last 12 months, and Grayscale’s migration could lead to those numbers growing.

Investors are always on the lookout for avenues to diversify their portfolios and Ethereum trading could be that avenue for crypto traders. Grayscale comes with a sizeable holding of Ethereum to Coinbase Custody and traders on Coinbase could become interested to buy Ethereum. Recent market trends show that Ethereum is pulling away from altcoins and becoming more like Bitcoin. Investors could buy Ethereum with PayPal and rightly expect a good return on their investment.