Key takeaways:
- Prominent executives have resigned from the board of directors of cryptocurrency investment firm Grayscale Investments, which runs the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
- With Mark Shifke, Matthew Kummell, and Edward McGee joining the board, resignations took effect on January 1, 2024.
Prominent executives have resigned from the board of directors of cryptocurrency investment firm Grayscale Investments, which runs the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
In a formal announcement made on December 26 in its 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Grayscale’s parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), stated that its founder and CEO, Barry Silbert, is leaving the board of directors.
The document states that Mark Murphy, the president of DCG, has also declared his intention to leave the Grayscale board. With Mark Shifke, Matthew Kummell, and Edward McGee joining the board, resignations took effect on January 1, 2024. The announcement stated:
“Effective January 1, 2024, the board consists of Mr. Shifke, Mr. Kummell, Michael Sonnenshein, and Mr. McGee, who also retain the authority granted to them as officers under the limited liability company agreement of the sponsor,”
Barry Silbert’s decision follows Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss’ announcement in an open letter to the DCG board of directors that he had asked the board to remove Silbert and name a new CEO on behalf of the company’s Earn 340,000 product users.
It is known that following Genesis’ announcement to cease cash withdrawals in November 2022, the two founders of DCG and Gemini’s relationship collapsed. Due to this, Gemini’s money and investors’ funds in the Earning product were frozen, leaving Gemini unable to retrieve its clients’ money.
The Gemini Earn program has also ceased operations, and Gemini has requested that all assets that have been locked up be returned to Gemini.
Attorney General Letitia James of New York sued Silbert’s DCG, the company that owns Grayscale, in October on charges that it had defrauded over 230,000 investors—among them at least 29,000 New Yorkers—of over $1 billion. DCG denied the accusations.
The US SEC has delayed deciding whether to approve or disapprove an Ether ETF offering that asset management company Grayscale made available on a spot basis. Following an October order from an appellate court for the SEC to investigate Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF offering, the Commission released one of its initial remarks.
