Key Points
- Grayscale launches two investment trusts for Bitcoin Layer-2 Stacks and NEAR Protocol.
- The trusts are limited to accredited investors only.
Grayscale has just revealed two new investment trusts today that are set to offer certain investors exposure to Bitcoin Layer-2 Stacks and NEAR Protocol.
The trusts are limited to accredited investors and function in a way similar to other private placements already offered by Grayscale.
The new trusts join others that are dedicated to digital assets such as Solana, Chainlink, and Decentraland.
Grayscale’s Head of Product and Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary explained that there is continuous demand for diversified crypto exposure, therefore Grayscale remains committed to launching new products that allow investors to access emerging and evolving parts of the crypto ecosystem.
What is Bitcoin Layer-2 Stacks?
Stacks is a Bitcoin Layer-2 network and it brings smart contract functionality to Bitcoin, while enabling DeFi apps on top of the network. Bitcoin’s network saw the Nakamoto upgrade on April 16, ahead of the Bitcoin halving which took place on April 20.
The Nakamoto upgrade is a major upgrade to the Stacks blockchain that instantiates at Bitcoin block 840,360. This marks the start of the Nakamoto mainnet rollout.
The Nakamoto release brings many new capabilities and improvements to the Stacks blockchain:
- improving transaction speed
- enhancing finality guarantees for transactions
- mitigating Bitcoin miner MEV (miner extractable value) opportunities that affect PoX
- boosting robustness against chain reorganizations
Stacks was launched back in October 2018, and it ties itself to Bitcoin by storing a hashed copy of Stacks transaction blocks in the ledger. It also rewards users who lock their STX in the network with direct payment in BTC. These users are known as stackers. Stacks also rewards miners who sacrifice their BTC with freshly minted STX.
Along with the Nakamoto upgrade, Bitcoin’s network was also elevated by the rising popularity of Ordinals and the Runes protocol.
Investor Relations Lead Kyle Ellicott said that within the Stacks ecosystem, there is a robust increase in demand from institutions. The whole Bitcoin ecosystem is seeing similar demand as the wide gap lessens around unlocking Bitcoin liquidity and making it more usable.
Grayscale sees private placements as the first stage of its products’ life cycle. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust is the only product that received the status of a listed ETF.
Reports reveal that Grayscale is also seeking similar approval from the SEC for its Ethereum Trust as well.
NEAR Protocol reveals new R&D lab for AI
The NEAR Protocol was launched back in 2020 and it managed to become a high-speed blockchain focused on decentralized cloud computing.
Yesterday, the project revealed that it launched a new research and development lab dedicated to AI.
In a post on X, the team behind the project said that NEAR was built to ensure that every individual has true and complete ownership of their assets, data, and power to choose.
They also said that today, we’re all seeing the risks of self-sovereignty, via the concentration of the world’s most powerful tools in the hands of a small group of people.
What did Illia see?
It’s time to reclaim your sovereignty.
NEAR was built to ensure every individual has true and complete ownership of their assets, data, and power to choose.
Today, we sit on the precipice of the greatest threat to our self-sovereignty; the concentration of… pic.twitter.com/whDa9FPdir
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) May 22, 2024
The team at NEAR Protocol highlighted that May 22 was the day that marks the establishment of Near AI an R&D lab led by Illia Polosukhin, a co-founder of NEAR Protocol and co-creator of the influential Transformers AI architecture, and Alex Skidanov, co-founder of NEAR Protocol.
They also announced that the NEAR Foundation launched an AI-focused incubator and investment wing that’s focused on AI projects.
The NEAR ecosystem is set to become the de facto home of AI and Web3, according to the project. They wrote that the dawn of user-owned AI is here, a world where new economies, innovation, and creativity can develop.
The team also said that the ecosystem brings a world where tech works for and with the users, not in the interests of profit or its creators.
The dawn of User-Owned AI is here.
A world where new economies, innovation, and creativity thrive.
A world where tech works for you, with you, not in the interests of profit or its creators.
A world where AI is truly open, not closed.https://t.co/Ts7O261dDC
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) May 22, 2024
Both new projects launched by Grayscale were described by Sharif-Askary as distinctive solutions to address the blockchain’s scalability challenges and help foster more adoption to drive the crypto ecosystem forward.
