4 ms·

Can someone please ELI5 what it means for this to be a private trust? How is it different from any other centralized exchange that custodies bitcoin for the buy

• kloch 4y ago
  Private placement trusts are limited to "sophisticated investors" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor Unlike mutual funds or "full service" ETF's nobody, not even institutional traders, can trade in and out of them daily. In fact usually you can only trade in/out at specific irregular times or by invitation. In some cases you may not be able to cash out until the fund itself is wound down. There is a middle ground of OTC ETF's like Grayscale sponsors that are closed-ended funds like the above, but has a stock that can be traded "over the counter" (OTC) by retail investors, similar to how penny stocks trade. Because they are still closed/limited funds their publicly traded stock can and usually does trade at a premium or discount to Net Asset Value (NAV). This is because institutional investors cannot create or redeem trust units on demand to Arb the difference like they do in full service open ended ETF's.