On Tuesday, Grayscale Investments submitted a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which it revealed that Barry Silbert had resigned as chairman of the board.
The chief executive of Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company of Grayscale Investments, Silbert had not made any public comments about his design to resign.
The resignations
Along with Silbert, Mark Murphy, another member of the Grayscale board, will also step down from his position. The resignations of the two board members will go into effect from January 1st.
According to the company, the current CFO of DCG, Mark Shifke, will take the position of chairman after Silbert’s resignation.
Some other additions to the board include Grayscale’s CFO, Edward McGee, and Vice President of Operations at DCG, Matt Kummell.
A spokesperson for Grayscale said that they were pleased to welcome Edward McGee, Matt Kummell and Mark Shifke to the board to help continue responsible growth of the company.
They further said that their respective experiences in the asset management and financial services industries would benefit the company and its investors, as they prepare for the next chapter.
However, they did not provide any explanation for the change in leadership that has come at a very crucial time for the company.
The situation
Analysts have predicted that in the next two weeks, the SEC will give the green light to the first-ever spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States.
Thanks to this financial product, traditional financial institutions would be able to get exposure to Bitcoin without having to hold it.
Grayscale is one of the few companies that have submitted applications for a spot Bitcoin ETF that the SEC is currently reviewing.
The approval of its application could undoubtedly become a watershed moment in the history of the company.
According to analysts, the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF resulted in an inflow of $1 trillion in the crypto market from institutional investors.
This event would also give Grayscale the chance to reset, as 2023 proved to be a bumpy year for its parent company, DCG.
2023
Crypto exchange Gemini, which is based in New York, filed a lawsuit against Silbert and DCG due to the messy fallout caused by the bankruptcy of Genesis earlier in the year.
The digital asset company was owned by DCG. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the co-founders of Gemini, accused Silbert of lying about the safety of customer funds, as Genesis handled some of them.
However, there has been some progress, as the companies announced in August that they had reached an ‘in-principle agreement’ for repaying creditors.
The agreement was said to have resolved the outstanding issues and provided creditors with a fair recovery, which was between 70% and 90%.
In October, the whole bunch was sued by the New York Attorney General, including Silbert, Gemini, Genesis, DCG, and also Soichiro Moro, the former CEO of Genesis.
They were accused of defrauding about 200,000 customers and making away with $1 billion. It remains unclear if Silbert has decided to leave due to the ongoing legal troubles.