Grayscale is buying BTC 54% faster than it is mined so far in 2021

Digital asset manager Grayscale is showing little signs of slowing down its Bitcoin accumulation, adding around 40,000 BTC to its stash since January 13. That’s around $1.36 billion worth of Bitcoin in just 16 days. The dramatic accumulation was noted by Rafael Schultze-Kraft, the CTO of crypto analytics firm Glassnode, who noted that only 26,000 BTC have been mined into existence since the start of the year. That means Grayscale has purchased Bitcoin at a rate that is 54% faster than new BTC supply has been created during 2021 so far. However the vast majority was purchased in the last 16 days, meaning that for the past two weeks Grayscale has been buying around 170% more Bitcoin than was mined over the same period.

If it keeps buying at such high levels, Grayscale will have amassed 912,500 BTC, or roughly 5% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply, by the end of 2021. Grayscale purchased more than $5 billion worth of Bitcoin in 2020, with the firm accumulating $251 million weekly on average during the fourth quarter — driving the value of its total assets under management to more than $20 billion.

Grayscale is buying BTC 54% faster than it is mined so far in 2021, Cointelegraph, Feb 1