Trading app Robinhood has updated its list with the addition of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (GETH) taking the number of listings to 11.
The two latest additions are investment products that trade like a stock and allow investors to get exposure to the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Investors don’t actually have to buy these cryptocurrencies. Grayscale takes care of the custody in exchange for a management fee. Buyers just get a share of either Bitcoin or Ethereum.
The GBTC and GETH are tied to the price of the underlying cryptocurrencies. They hardly trade on a 1:1 basis. Plus, long lockup periods are attributed to the difference in their price. Experts say that when large holders eventually sell, it affects the price on the open market. This may somewhat explain why Robinhood traders may be interested in the assets as they can get it much cheaper and hope the gap closes.
ETHE, as per data from Ycharts, is selling at a discount of 26.18%. This means that it’s 26% cheaper to buy ETHE than to actually buy the Ether cryptocurrency. Moreover, GBTC is trading at a discount of 25.5%.
In April, Robinhood had added Polygon, Compound, Shiba Inu, and Solana to its listings of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Dogecoin, etc. At the Bitcoin 2022 Conference, the trading platform announced its plan to use the Lightning Network for sending quicker, cheaper BTC transactions. It also said that users would be able to transfer their crypto assets off of Robinhood.
Furthermore, the platform operates a discount brokerage that provides retail investors with low-barrier entry to financial markets.
