While great attention has been paid to the recent enormous accumulation activities of the Grayscale's Bitcoin Investment Trust, or BIT, the crypto fund director has also been aggressively growing its Ether (ETH) stash.

Speaking on a contempo episode of the Coinscrum markets podcast, Grayscale'south manager of investor relations, Ray Sharif-Askary, revealed that $110 one thousand thousand worth of ETH has been purchased past the firm during 2020 so far.

Institutional investors diversify with ETH

As such, Grayscale's purchases are equal to 0.four% of Ethereum's total market cap in the by 5 months. Sharif-Askary noted that over 38% of Grayscale's current clients now concord more than i crypto asset, upwards significantly from roughly ix% as of 12 months ago.

"It is encouraging to investors [...] diversify within the digital currency asset form, simply similar they would with whatever other traditional asset form," she stated.

Over the same period, Grayscale has purchased $390 million in Bitcoin (BTC), equal to 0.2% of the market's capitalization. The firm is reportedly ownership BTC at a rate equal to 1.5 times the quantity of new Bitcoin created through mining.

Grayscale Ethereum Trust explodes

Grayscale's Ether accumulation has coincided with a dramatic year-to-date (YTD) performance for shares in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, which have increased nearly 800% with the market'south last recorded merchandise closing for $210.

Grayscale Ethereum Trust/USD

Grayscale Ethereum Trust/USD: TradingView

Within the last 24 hours, the trust briefly tested $250, offering YTD returns of 995% to investors who purchased shares at the start of January.

Institutions seek inflation hedge amongst dubiety

Sharif-Askary attributed Grayscale's enormous crypto accumulation to institutions seeking a hedge fledge against inflation in response to U.S. monetary policy amid the COVID-19 crisis.

"From a border perspective, COVID-xix and the policy implications specially have really set the stage for Bitcoin to become seen every bit a shop of value nugget. [...] Institutional investors are taking active long positions in digital assets through our products, and it'south because they are looking for an asset that is scarce and that can be used as an inflation hedge in a world where we are faced with unprecedented budgetary stimulus."

"Nosotros've never seen demand like this earlier for our products," she added.