Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein departs company

A Goldman Sachs alum will take over as CEO in August

May 20, 2024 09:22 am

Artwork by Crystal Le

Michael Sonnenshein has stepped down as CEO of Grayscale Investments.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news Monday, saying that Grayscale will bring in a Goldman Sachs alum as the new CEO in August. A Grayscale spokesperson confirmed the news when reached.

“Peter is an exceptional strategic leader with global expertise across the most prominent asset managers, which are critical ingredients as we position Grayscale for its next phase of growth,” Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert said in a statement.

Peter Mintzberg served as the head of strategy for the asset management division at Goldman and also worked at BlackRock and Invesco.

In a post on X, Sonnenshein said that he leaves Grayscale with “a deep gratitude” and said he’s “excited for what’s next.” Though it’s unclear what’s in store for the former executive at this stage.

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The change comes the same week as an expected decision on the ether ETF application. Grayscale filed to convert its ether trust into an ETF last year.

Analysts expect the SEC to deny the ether ETFs later this week. Grayscale withdrew its ether futures ET application earlier this month.

During a Financial Times event earlier this month, Sonnenshein reportedly said that the firm wants to focus on its spot products.

The exit also comes as Grayscale’s bitcoin ETF continues to see outflows. GBTC has the highest fee of the slate of spot bitcoin ETFs approved in January, at 1.5%. BlackRock has seen significant success in the same period of time.

However, the firm notched inflows of $18 million last week, according to a CoinShares report from Monday morning.

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