Grayscale Chainlink Trust Shares Rocket To 200% Premium

GLINK, shares in Grayscale’s Chainlink Trust, have rocketed to a 200% premium compared to the spot LINK markets.

The sizable spread was flagged by ChainLinkGod, a prominent influencer and Chainlink community ambassador, on Nov. 7. The data shows the spread between GLINK and LINK growing from roughly 100% to 200% amid the latest Chainlink rally.

The news comes after LINK more than doubled in price over the past three weeks amid the broader crypto market recovery. LINK last changed hands for $13.13, up from $6.14 on Sept. 18, according to CoinGecko.

For comparison, there was no spread between the two assets in January of this year.

Grayscale Trusts

Shares in Grayscale’s trusts cannot be redeemable for the underlying asset they track, meaning investors can only exit their position by selling the shares to a buyer.

The large spread between GLINK and LINK was driven by the total value locked in GLINK doubling to around $4M, with CoinShares reporting the product received $2M worth of inflows over the past seven days. Grayscale Trusts shares are securities and are exclusively accessible to sophisticated investors.

“While the AUM of $GLNK is only ~$4M, it's interesting nonetheless to see the demand spike on a product geared towards institutional investors,” ChainLinkGod said.

ETF ambitions

Although Grayscale Trust shares are non-redeemable today, many pundits believe that may soon change.

Grayscale first applied to convert its Bitcoin Trust into a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in Oct. 2021, but was knocked back by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, the U.S. District of Columbia Court of Appeal sided with Grayscale’s appeal in August, ruling that Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust is “materially similar” to futures ETFs previously approved by the SEC.

Last month, the SEC declined to appeal the court’s decision before its October deadline expired, fuelling speculation that its ETF conversion may soon go ahead and pave the way for other Grayscale Trusts to undergo similar restructurings.

The news followed a spot Bitcoin ETF application from BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, in July, which ignited bullish expectations that the first exchange-traded fund investing in spot BTC may soon receive regulatory approval.

GBTC shares similarly outperformed spot Bitcoin in recent months, with GBTC up 200% year-to-date while BTC gained 10% over the same period.