Both Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC) can now be traded as stocks available to the public. According to Grayscale Investments, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has given them the go signal for both Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust and Grayscale Litecoin Trust stocks to be made available for public quotation. Both crypto-derived stocks can now be quoted and traded via OTCQX, an over-the-counter market that is overseen by FINRA instead of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While Grayscale’s Bitcoin Cash stock will be traded under the symbol BCHG, their Litecoin stock will be under the symbol LTCN.
As this is the first time for BCH and LTC-based securities in the U.S. to be quoted publicly, it is a historic move by the New York-based firm Grayscale Investments. The company primarily makes cryptocurrencies available to traders in the form of stocks and is currently the largest digital currency asset manager in the world. Apart from BCH and LTC, Grayscale’s crypto-derived products include stocks in Bitcoin (BTC), Horizen, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, XRP, Zcash, and Stellar Lumens. Through the management of open-ended trusts derived from cryptocurrencies, Grayscale’s services allows for investments in digital assets minus the challenges of managing and safekeeping the corresponding digital wallets.
“Grayscale builds investment products that operate within existing regulatory frameworks. With two additional products gaining approval for public trading, we’re broadening access for investors to gain exposure to the digital currency asset class,” details Michael Sonnenshein, the company’s managing director. In fact, while Grayscale’s crypto products trade at a premium compared to the actual price of the underlying crypto assets, the company has successfully capitalized on a niche market, attracting investors who are interested in cryptocurrency but have reservations about buying them directly. Although the historic development opens new investment possibilities for both cryptocurrencies, it should be noted that both LTC and BCH can still be bought and sold directly via the different crypto exchanges where they are available.
While LTC is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies in the world, you might remember BCH as the BTC spinoff that attracted a lot of controversy when it was created in 2017 using a process called “Hard Fork.” BCH, which has been lauded as a continuation of the vision of BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is currently worth over $200 per unit. Meanwhile, investors looking to trade BTC have seen it regain is price as it hovers around the $9,000 mark, while Litecoin is at a little over $40. Whether you prefer direct cryptocurrency trading or investing in Grayscale’s FINRA-regulated BCHG and LTCN stocks, the entrance of more crypto-derived securities into the public stock market is a victory not just for the company, but for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as well.
Actually, BCHG and LTCN are already the fifth and sixth publicly-quotable crypto-derived securities by Grayscale, with the first ones being Bitcoin Trust, Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust, and Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund. As more traditional investors will have the chance to diversify their portfolios with crypto-derived securities, this development will no doubt help in pulling not just cryptocurrencies but also other blockchain-based products and applications into the mainstream limelight.
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