Grayscale launches two new trusts investing in NEAR and STX

Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments launched two new investment trusts for diversified crypto exposure.

Grayscale Near Trust and Grayscale Stacks Trust opened on May 23, allowing individual and institutional accredited investors to access daily subscriptions. One trust is exclusively invested in NEAR, which supports the Near Protocol, while the other trust is exclusively invested in STX, which is part of the Bitcoin Layer 2 Stacks, according to a Thursday release . 

"With continued demand for diversified crypto asset exposure, Grayscale remains committed to launching new products that enable investors to access emerging and evolving parts of the crypto ecosystem," said Grayscale’s Head of Product Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary in a statement. "By creating distinctive solutions to address blockchain’s scalability challenges, Stacks and Near are poised to help foster greater adoption—ultimately helping to drive the crypto ecosystem forward."

Grayscale's spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund GBTC maintains among the highest assets under management (AUM) compared to other crypto funds. GBTC amassed $20.08 billion worth of funds as of May 23, according to The Block's Data Dashboard. 

The Block prices show that NEAR traded at $7.93, and an STX token was worth $2.044 as of 9:19 a.m. ET (13:19 UTC).

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Grayscale ether ETF

Grayscale's two new investment funds come as the firm's odds of having an Ethereum ETF approved greatly increased over the last week. 

On May 20, senior ETF analysts at Bloomberg upped their predictions from 25% to 75% on whether the Securities and Exchange Commission will approve ether ETFs, with the agency seemingly doing an abrupt "180" in their thinking.

Grayscale refiled its ether ETF submission to remove mention of staking on May 21 to further boost its odds of approval, The Block previously reported.