Ethereum

Lido DAO

Optimism

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust

Grayscale Investments launched two new investment funds for Lido and Optimism’s governance tokens, LDO (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/lido-dao-ldo-price-index" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/lido-dao-ldo-price-index">LDO</a>) and OP (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/optimism-price-index" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/optimism-price-index">OP</a>), the asset manager said on Dec. 12.&nbsp;
Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and Grayscale Optimism Trust offer exposure to the native tokens of Ethereum’s largest liquid staking token (LST) protocol and one of its most popular layer-2 (L2) scaling solutions, respectively.&nbsp;
“Lido is helping to democratize staking on Ethereum, and Optimism is critical in allowing Ethereum to scale to compete with newer, faster layer 1 blockchains,“ Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale’s head of product and research, said in a statement.
The trusts are designed to offer investors “exposure to protocols helping to increase Ethereum’s efficiency, security, scalability, and adoption within the broader DeFi ecosystem,” Sharif-Askary said.&nbsp;
Lido is an LST protocol issuing tradeable tokens representing claims on an underlying pool of staked Ether (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/ethereum-price" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/ethereum-price">ETH</a>). It currently touts nearly $40 billion in total value locked (TVL), making Lido the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol by TVL, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://defillama.com/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://defillama.com/">according</a> to DefiLlama.
Optimism is a popular L2 network with approximately $800 million in TVL, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://defillama.com/chains" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://defillama.com/chains">according</a> to DefiLlama.&nbsp;
Its technology stack is used by other L2s, including Coinbase’s Base and Uniswap’s Unichain, creating a network of interlinked L2s Optimism dubs the “superchain.”
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 <img alt="Grayscale launches Lido, Optimism investment funds" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/0193bbc8-8190-7ae2-943b-95b2abd98c96" title="">
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 List of Grayscale crypto products. Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.grayscale.com/crypto-products" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://www.grayscale.com/crypto-products">Grayscale</a>
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Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-regulators-mull-approving-grayscale-crypto-index-etf" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-regulators-mull-approving-grayscale-crypto-index-etf">US regulators mull approving Grayscale crypto index ETF</a>
<h3 id="strong-expanding-suite-of-crypto-funds-strong">Expanding suite of crypto funds</h3>
The funds, which are only available to qualified investors, add to Grayscale’s suite of single-asset crypto investment products.&nbsp;
In October, Grayscale launched an <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-launches-aave-investment-fund" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">investment fund for Aave’s governance token</a>, AAVE (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/aave-price-index" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/aave-price-index">AAVE</a>).&nbsp;
It also <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-35-cryptocurrencies-potential-investment-products" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">added 35 crypto altcoins</a>, including Dogecoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/doge-price-index" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/doge-price-index">DOGE</a>), Worldcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/worldcoin-wld-price-index" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/worldcoin-wld-price-index">WLD</a>), Pyth (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/pyth-network-price-index" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/pyth-network-price-index">PYTH</a>) and Rune (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/thorchain-rune-price-index" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/thorchain-rune-price-index">RUNE</a>), to a list of assets that are “under consideration” for future investment products.&nbsp;
In August, Grayscale launched three trusts to invest in the native protocol tokens of Sky (previously MakerDAO), Bittensor and Sui, respectively.
Grayscale is the world’s largest crypto fund manager, with nearly $35 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 11, according to Grayscale.
It is best known for its Bitcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price">BTC</a>) and ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE).
United States regulators are <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-regulators-mull-approving-grayscale-crypto-index-etf" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-regulators-mull-approving-grayscale-crypto-index-etf">mulling permitting</a> Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC), which holds a diverse portfolio of cryptocurrencies, as an ETF. 
Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/influencers-breaking-law-shilling-memecoin-scams/" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/influencers-breaking-law-shilling-memecoin-scams/">Influencers shilling memecoin scams face severe legal consequences</a>

Grayscale launches Lido, Optimism investment funds

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Cointelegraph

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