Grayscale lets investors swap coins for shares in ten crypto ETFs, from about $80,300

Grayscale said on Wednesday 21 October 2026 that eligible investors can now hand over crypto directly in exchange for shares of ten of its exchange-traded products, instead of selling the coins for dollars first. The in-kind subscriptions cover the Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (ticker BTC), the Ethereum Staking Mini ETF (ETH) and eight funds holding other tokens, from Solana to Zcash. Approximate minimums run from $80,300 for the Solana Staking ETF (GSOL) to $364,800 for the bitcoin fund, according to the company’s release distributed by GlobeNewswire. Nobody can do this from a brokerage app. Investors have to go through an authorized participant, the large trading firms that deal with the fund directly, or through someone with access to one.

Two names are missing. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), the company’s oldest and best-known funds, are not among the ten, and the release does not mention them. It also speaks only of contributions, meaning tokens in and shares out. It says nothing about the reverse trip, handing back shares to receive coins.

“In-kind investing bridges direct crypto ownership and traditional portfolio management,” Steve Vanourny, Grayscale’s head of index, said in the release. The Block reported the move at 11:12 a.m. New York time (15:12 UTC) on the same day and gave the same range of minimums. Grayscale published no flow figures and no list of firms ready to handle these orders.

Grayscale in-kind ETF subscriptions: the ten funds and their minimums

Grayscale gives each minimum as an approximate dollar amount followed by a plus sign. The figures are based on market prices on 20 October 2026, the release says, and they move with the price of each asset and may change without notice. A fall in Solana would lower the GSOL threshold; a bitcoin rally would raise the one on BTC. Grayscale does not explain how each figure is calculated.

Source for every row: Grayscale’s release of 21 October 2026, read through the syndicated GlobeNewswire copy. The Block confirms the ten products and the $80,300 to $364,800 range.

For most of this list, the step matters more than it does for the bitcoin fund. Eight of the ten track tokens other than bitcoin and ether: Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Avalanche, Chainlink, Hyperliquid, Sui and Zcash. Several of them are staking funds, which put part of the tokens they hold to work on their networks. A holder of one of those tokens who wanted fund shares until now had to sell, take the price and fees of the day, then buy the ETF. Grayscale’s new route lets a large holder skip the sale, at least on paper.

The lowest entry point is GSOL at about $80,300, followed by the Dogecoin fund at about $95,550 and the Chainlink fund at about $107,900. At the top sit the Bitcoin Mini Trust at about $364,800 and the Zcash ETF at about $322,600. None of these is a retail ticket.

GBTC and ETHE are not on the list, and redemptions are not mentioned

GBTC converted from a trust into an ETF on 11 January 2024, the day US spot bitcoin ETFs started trading. ETHE followed on 23 July 2024, when it began trading on NYSE Arca alongside the new Ethereum Mini Trust, according to Grayscale’s announcement filed with the SEC. The list of ten carries the two Mini funds, which charge lower fees, rather than the older trusts. The release gives no reason and no date for adding GBTC or ETHE.

On redemptions, the wording matters. The release talks of “in-kind subscriptions” and of investors who “contribute an underlying digital asset directly in exchange for shares”. It does not use the words redemption or redeem anywhere. So, as of 21 October, Grayscale has not told investors that they can turn shares of these ten funds back into tokens through the same route.

At the level of the fund and its dealers, things can be different. A prospectus supplement filed for GSOL on 13 May 2026 says the Solana fund will create and redeem shares in kind with authorized participants or their designees, in exchange for SOL. That is a deal between the trust and a handful of trading firms. It does not say whether those firms will pass the redemption side on to outside clients, and Wednesday’s release does not either.

In-kind vs cash creations: how a crypto ETF gets new shares

An exchange-traded fund trades on a stock exchange like a share, but new shares are not printed by the exchange. They are made in the “primary market” by authorized participants (APs). When demand rises, an AP gives the fund what it needs to hold and receives a block of fresh shares, which it can then sell on the exchange. When demand falls, the AP hands shares back and receives the assets. This creation and redemption keeps the ETF price close to the value of what it holds.

The question is what the AP hands over. Under a cash creation, the AP sends dollars and the fund, or a firm acting for it, buys the coins on the market. Under an in-kind creation, the AP delivers the coins themselves. No coin purchase is needed at the moment the shares are created, because the coins arrive ready-made.

Grayscale’s announcement adds one more layer. It lets an outside holder, say a fund, a family office or a wealthy individual with tokens in a wallet, pass those tokens through an AP into the fund and get shares back. The holder ends up with ETF shares in a brokerage account instead of coins in a wallet, and nobody sold coins on an exchange along the way.

Put simply, on the cash route coins are sold for dollars, the dollars buy shares and the fund buys coins again. On the in-kind route the coins go into the fund and the shares come out. Fewer trades means lower costs, at least in theory, and that is where the hoped-for savings come from.

SEC approval of in-kind creations in July 2025

The US spot bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024 as cash-only products, and so did the ether funds that followed. On 29 July 2025 the SEC approved exchange rule changes allowing in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETPs, which it described as a departure from the cash-only model it had approved earlier. “Investors will benefit from these approvals, as they will make these products less costly and more efficient,” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said at the time.

Wednesday’s move is not a new SEC approval. The 2025 orders cover transactions between funds and their authorized participants. What Grayscale has done is open a practical route from outside holders to those participants across ten products, with its own minimums and terms. The Block describes it the same way.

Who can actually use Grayscale’s in-kind route

The release is direct about the gatekeepers. Clients who want in-kind subscriptions in the primary market must work with an authorized participant, or with another intermediary that has access to one. Availability depends on the product, on facilitator fees and on the terms that apply. Grayscale does not list the fees, does not name the participants for each fund and does not define who counts as an eligible investor. It refers interested clients to its client service team.

A holder first needs enough tokens to clear the minimum, which starts above $80,000. Then comes an account with a firm that can reach an AP, typically a large broker or a trading desk rather than a retail app. The fees are not yet public, and they may eat part of the savings the route is supposed to bring.

A retail investor who buys GSOL or the Bitcoin Mini Trust through a broker with dollars is not affected. Those shares are bought and sold on the exchange as before. The change concerns people who already hold sizeable amounts of the underlying tokens and want to move them into a fund wrapper.

Grayscale says the tax treatment is uncertain

Grayscale’s own release is at its most cautious here. Its risk section says tax treatment “is uncertain and may trigger taxable events”, especially when an investor contributes tokens other than the asset the fund holds. It also tells clients to consult their financial, legal and tax advisers about their own situation.

That warning sits uneasily with the way in-kind swaps are often sold to investors. When BlackRock lowered its threshold in the summer, CoinDesk reported on 26 August 2026, citing Bloomberg, that handing over bitcoin for ETF shares can avoid the sale that would trigger capital gains tax. Grayscale makes no such claim for its ten funds. Coindaro found no IRS guidance specific to these swaps as of 21 October. Anyone counting on a tax advantage has, for now, only the issuer’s word “uncertain” to go on.

The release flags a related trap. Where an investor’s tokens are not exactly what the fund holds, getting in may require selling or swapping them into the right asset first, with market impact, slippage and timing risk. Any such blockchain, where users swap tokens directly from their own wallets without handing custody of their funds to a company.">swap could itself be a taxable event.

What Grayscale says investors gain, and the risks it lists

Grayscale lists its case for the route. Holders no longer carry the burden of self-custody and keeping private keys safe. Execution costs may be lower than trading the coins on crypto exchanges, the company says, using “potentially” rather than promising it. And fund shares fit tools that coins do not: brokerage and retirement accounts, margin and collateral, listed options and estate planning.

Vanourny also tied the move to security: “As digital assets mature, investors are seeking more secure and efficient ways to manage their crypto holdings.” In the same statement, carried by The Block, he pointed to growing cybersecurity threats, including self-custody and DeFi exploits, as the reason institutional custody is gaining value.

The risk list is longer than the benefit list. ETF shares received may trade at a premium or a discount to the fund’s net asset value. The process depends on APs, custodians and operational steps, each a point where a transfer or custody error can happen. The products can end early if the custodian resigns or is removed without a replacement. And they are not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, so they do not carry the protections of a classic mutual fund or ETF.

BlackRock and Bitwise cut their in-kind minimums first

Grayscale is catching up, not leading. According to Bloomberg, as reported by CoinDesk on 26 August 2026, BlackRock cut the minimum value of bitcoin needed for a direct swap into its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) to $1 million in July 2026, from $25 million. Bitwise lowered its threshold to $3 million, from $100 million. Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said IBIT had processed more than $5 billion of these swaps, against $3 billion in October 2025.

This is not a like-for-like comparison. The BlackRock and Bitwise figures are fixed thresholds for bitcoin funds, reported second-hand; Grayscale’s are price-linked estimates across ten different assets. On paper, Grayscale’s bitcoin entry point sits well below IBIT’s new $1 million. Fees and the AP’s own terms, which none of the three issuers has published in these reports, decide what a holder really pays. The real difference is breadth: BlackRock and Bitwise talked about bitcoin, while Grayscale has put Solana, XRP, Dogecoin and five other tokens on the same footing.

The move lands in a quiet week for ETF demand. US spot bitcoin ETFs took in a net $23 million or so on 20 October, after about $527 million the day before, as Coindaro noted in its analysis of Tuesday’s US session. Issuers are competing on product design as much as on fees: on 20 October Coindaro reported BlackRock’s filing for PBIT, a bitcoin ETF with a capped upside. Bitcoin traded near $84,660 at 16:17 UTC on Wednesday, according to Coindaro’s market snapshot. No figures were available on Wednesday on flows into any of the ten Grayscale funds.

What Grayscale has not said yet

Several points are still open after Wednesday’s release. They decide whether the route is used or stays on paper.

• Whether holders can also redeem shares of the ten funds for tokens through an AP, or only subscribe.
• The size of the facilitator fees, and which authorized participants accept in-kind orders for each fund.
• Who counts as an eligible investor, and whether investors outside the United States can use the route.
• Whether GBTC and ETHE will be added, and when.
• How the IRS treats a swap of tokens for fund shares, which Grayscale calls uncertain.

The first public sign of use would show up in the funds’ daily share counts and flows. Grayscale has not given a date for any further step.