Drying Up: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Bought 12,319 BTC ($290 Million) in Only 24 Hours

As institutional interests in bitcoin (BTC) continue to spike, popular U.S-based digital asset manager Grayscale Investments has made another groundbreaking purchase of the asset.  

According to data on crypto derivative analytic platform Bybt, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a closed-end investment fund that focuses exclusively on BTC, bought 12,319 BTC valued at approximately $290 million over the past 24 hours. 

Based on the feat, Grayscale’s investment product for bitcoin now has $13.9 billion in assets under management (AUM) or an equivalent of 588,970 bitcoins. 

NEW: Grayscale buys 12,319 BTC worth $285m over the past 24 hours, pushing its total #Bitcoin AUM to $13.7b pic.twitter.com/JNYkbLB2w3

— Bloqport (@Bloqport) December 23, 2020

Since the beginning of this month, Grayscale has been on a purchasing spree. From November 30, 2020, Grayscale has added 54,850 BTC in less than a month, as the firm’s bitcoin trust fund moved from 534,120 BTC to 588,970 BTC. 

The milestone is the highest recorded since the firm’s existence and is believed to be the fuel behind the recent bitcoin rally.

Aside from Grayscale, MicroStrategy announced that it had added 29,646 BTC to its bitcoin treasury, bringing its total bitcoin holdings to $1.12 billion. 

Massive Institutional BTC Adoption

Grayscale’s massive bitcoin purchase may not come as a surprise to many because the market is already saturated with institutional investors. 

Unlike the 2017 bull market that was led by retail investors, this years’ BTC rally is championed by their institutional counterparts, as these players commit large amounts of funds into the market. 

Financial analysts believe institutional investors decided to terms with the cryptocurrency because regulations are becoming clearer. 

However, the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic seems to be the compelling force that prompted many institutional players to interact with the asset. 

BTC showcased its ability to withstand the storm of any financial crisis by quickly recovering from the virus’ impact, which saw it trade below $4,000 in March. 

At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $23,586, despite news of a new COVID-19 variant spotted in the U.K., causing conventional assets to underperform.