Grayscale is Moving Its 2.7 Billion in Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP & Litecoin to Coinbase Custody

Grayscale Investments has entered into agreements with Coinbase Custody to serve as its Custodian, effective July 29, 2019, announced the company on August 2nd.

According to a blog post by Coinbase, only after a thorough and systematic review, Coinbase Custody was chosen.

“Grayscale and Coinbase have led the way in providing 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,” said Sam McIngvale, Coinbase Custody Chief Executive Officer.

Grayscale claims to hold $2.7 billion in total assets under management, as per its Q2 2019 report, that nearly tripled its Q1 holdings of $1.2 billion.

Coinbase Custody will serve as a custodian for the digital currency asset manager’s single-asset investment products and their underlying assets in Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Horizen (ZEN), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), XRP, and Zcash (ZEC) including the public quotations available to individual and institutional investors.

However, Coinbase Custody does not support Horizon yet because of pending regulatory approval. As such, it will remain with the company's existing security provider, for now.

Coinbase Custody will also serve as a custodian for Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund, that provides exposure to the top five digital currencies.

Coinbase custody is an independently-capitalized business to US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase that is licensed to custody under NY State Banking Law.

“As a NY State-chartered trust company, Coinbase Custody is held to the same fiduciary standards as national banks. We also offer some of the broadest and deepest insurance coverage in the crypto industry,”

McIngvale said.

As per the official announcement, each agreement is for an initial term of three years, with a fee based on a percentage of assets under custody. Initially, either party may terminate for certain events as described in the agreement but once the initial term ends, both the parties would have to provide ninety days’ prior written notice to terminate the agreement.