Grayscale launches smart contract fund for Ethereum competitors

Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments has unveiled a new cryptocurrency fund dedicated to smart contract platforms excluding Ethereum, underscoring growing investor appetite for alternative blockchain networks.

The Grayscale Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund, also known by the ticker symbol GSCPxE, is the company’s 18th investment product. The fund will provide exposure to seven smart contract platforms at the following weightings:

Cardano (ADA): 24.63%
Solana (SOL): 24.27%
Avalanche (AVAX): 16.96%
Polkadot (DOT): 16.16%
Polygon (MATIC): 9.65%
Algorand (ALGO): 4.27%
Stellar (XLM): 4.06%

Grayscale said the new fund is now open for daily subscription by accredited investors.

Ethereum’s dominance as the premier smart contract platform is being challenged by competitors that claim to offer superior transaction speeds, lower costs and higher throughput capacity. While Ethereum continues to dominate the decentralized application space, the DeFi industry is becoming a more level playing field. Currently, Ethereum accounts for just over 55.4% of the total value locked on DeFi protocols, down from over 96% in January 2021, according to DeFi Llama.

*Ethereum remains the largest DeFi platform by total value locked, but its dominance has eroded over the past year. Source: DeFi Llama*

Grayscale is by far the world’s largest digital asset manager with over $36 billion in assets under management as of March 22. Assets under management reached north of $60 billion in November 2021 during the height of Bitcoin’s (BTC) record-breaking rally.

Here’s a snapshot of Grayscale investment products as of March 21, 2022.
Visit our product tracker for daily updates: https://t.co/XOE44lKFHm $AAVE $ADA $AMP $BTC $BAT $BCH $COMP $CRV $ETH $ETC $FIL $LINK $LPT $LTC $MANA $MKR $SNX $SOL $SUSHI $UNI $XLM $YFI $ZEC $ZEN pic.twitter.com/Nal3Qg5Mm7
— Grayscale (@Grayscale) March 21, 2022

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, also known as GBTC, is the largest offering with over $26.4 billion in assets. As Cointelegraph reported, institutional investors have increased their exposure to GBTC in recent months as its discount to Bitcoin’s spot price widened.