Grayscale unveils MakerDAO-focused trust, enhancing DeFi access for investors

Grayscale has launched a crypto investment trust fund for MakerDAO, according to an Aug. 13 statement shared with CryptoSlate.

This fund, named the Grayscale MakerDAO Trust, will give investors direct exposure to MakerDAO’s native MKR token. The firm stated:

“MKR provides investors exposure to an on-chain credit protocol, stablecoins, real-world assets, and more, through MakerDAO’s ecosystem.”

MakerDAO, a lending platform launched in 2017 on the Ethereum blockchain, supports the decentralized stablecoin DAI. According to DeFiLlama data, MakerDAO is the fourth-largest DeFi protocol, with assets totaling around $7 billion. Its DAI stablecoin ranks third in the industry, behind Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.

Previously, Grayscale offered exposure to MakerDAO through its DeFi Fund, which also included assets like Uniswap, Lido, and Synthetix. However, the new Grayscale MakerDAO Trust will focus exclusively on the MKR token.

Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, described the launch as a significant step in expanding the company’s crypto product lineup. She added:

“The launch of the Grayscale MakerDAO Trust allows investors to experience the growth of the entire MakerDAO ecosystem, aiming to remove DeFi’s dependency on traditional finance infrastructure by providing a permissionless, decentralized, and open stablecoin system.”

The Trust is now available for daily subscriptions from eligible individual and accredited institutional investors.

Grayscale trusts

Meanwhile, this launch came shortly after Grayscale introduced its Bittensor Protocol and Sui Trusts, which also target native tokens of these ecosystems. The asset management firm now holds a Trust forovern 20 digital assets, including Solana, Litecoin, Chainlink, ZCash, and others.

According to CoinGlass data, the total value of assets under Grayscale’s crypto trust management is more than $7 billion.

Over the past year, Grayscale has successfully converted its Trusts in Bitcoin and Ethereum into spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US. These products are among the largest crypto ETFs, with combined assets nearing $20 billion.