Arkham identifies Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust as second-largest ETH holder News ▸ US ▸ Ethereum ▸ Investments
Arkham identifies Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust as second-largest ETH holder
Grayscale reportedly has $5 billion in ETH, in line with official statements, as institutional players take center stage in crypto markets.
1 min read
Updated: Sep. 1, 2023 at 8:53 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Arkham Intelligence identified Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust as the second-largest Ethereum (ETH) holder in a tweet on Sept. 1.
The company said that the trust is the “second largest ETH entity globally” and that the fund contains $5 billion of ETH (seemingly rounding up from $4.9 billion).
Akrham said those funds are divided across more than 500 addresses, each containing $30 million or less. Arkham said it identified those addresses by analyzing activity and cross-referencing with balances that Grayscale reported publicly.
Though Arkham claims that these holdings have never been identified, Grayscale’s own website reveals that its Ethereum Trust has nearly $5.0 billion in assets under management. As such, it seems that Arkham is the first to identify the particular addresses tied to the fund and not the first to discover the fund’s balance.
Notably, there appears to be a significant discrepancy between Arkham’s data and Grayscale’s own reports regarding its other crypto funds. While Grayscale says its Bitcoin Trust holds $16.3 billion, Arkham reports that Grayscale has only $92.1 million in Bitcoin holdings. Various other cryptocurrency assets are also listed on Arkham’s profile for Grayscale.
Arkham previously identified Robinhood as the holder of the third-largest Bitcoin wallet (holding $3 billion) and the fifth-largest Ethereum wallet (containing $2.5 billion). Unlike those discoveries, the findings about Grayscale do not concern a single crypto wallet.
News comes alongside court victory
Grayscale obtained a legal victory on Aug. 29 as courts overruled an earlier rejection from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The current legal outcome will require the SEC to review, but not necessarily approve, Grayscale’s proposal for converting its GBTC fund to a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Grayscale seemingly abandoned plans to create an Ethereum futures ETF in May, according to reports from Bloomberg at that time.
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Author 
Mike Dalton
Before transitioning to crypto writing in 2018, Mike studied library and information sciences. Currently, he resides on Canada's West Coast.
Editor Editor 
Jacob Oliver
Jacob Oliver is a recovering academic and English teacher turned crypto journalist and web3 writer. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
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