Asset manager Grayscale unveiled two new investment trusts on Thursday, offering certain investors exposure to the Bitcoin layer-2 Stacks and Near Protocol, respectively.Limited to accredited investors, the trusts function much in the same as other private placements that Grayscale offers. Among a myriad of offerings, the new trusts join others dedicated to cryptocurrencies like Solana, Chainlink, and Decentraland.“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,” Grayscale’s Head of Product and Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, told As a Bitcoin layer-2 network, Stacks brings smart contract functionality to Bitcoin, enabling the development of decentralized finance applications on top of crypto’s oldest network. Beginning to roll out its “Within the Stacks ecosystem, we’re witnessing a robust increase in demand from institutions, overall,” Stacks’ Investor Relations Lead Kyle Ellicott told Grayscale describes private placements as the first stage of its products’ life cycle, with uplisting to an ETF listed as an end-goal on the firm’s NEAR ProtocolThe innovative nature of both projects was noted by Sharif-Askary, who said, “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.”Edited by Andrew Hayward
