Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein steps down

• Michael Sonnenshein has stepped down as CEO of Grayscale.
• Grayscale announced that Peter Mintzberg is the new CEO, effective August 15, 2024.
• Sonnenshein joined Grayscale in 2014 and was CEO from 2021, overseeing Grayscale’s successful lawsuit against SEC.

Michael Sonnenshein has stepped down as the CEO of Grayscale Investments, the crypto asset manager offering the spot Bitcoin ETF $GBTC.

Grayscale announced Sonnenshein’s exit on Monday, revealing his replacement to be Peter Mintzberg.

Per a press release published on Monday, Mintzberg joins Grayscale from Goldman Sachs, where he was the Global Head of Strategy for Asset and Wealth Management.

The new Grayscale CEO also held prominent positions at BlackRock, OppenheimerFunds and Invesco.

“As we position Grayscale for its next phase of growth, excited to welcome Peter Mintzberg as Grayscale’s CEO, effective August 15. Joining from Goldman Sachs, Peter has 20+ years of experience across prominent asset managers, including BlackRock, OppenheimerFunds & Invesco,” Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Grayscale parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG), said.

Sonnenshein helped Grayscale grow

Silbert thanked Sonnenshein, who joined Grayscale in 2014 and had been CEO since 2021, for his leadership and contribution towards Grayscale’s growth as a crypto company.

That includes the historic lawsuit and court victory against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“Michael guided Grayscale from $60 million to ~$30 billion of assets under management and through its historic court victory against the Securities and Exchange Commission, which enabled Grayscale to uplist the first spot Bitcoin ETF to NYSE Arca alongside the largest players in traditional finance,” Silbert said in a statement.

While Grayscale and DCG haven’t provided the exact reasons for the former CEO’s exit, observes say it could be tied to $GBTC and its performance since SEC’s approval in January this year.

In three months of trading, Grayscale has seen over $17 billion in $GBTC outflows.

Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, commented that Grayscale’s outflows are massive and one likely to have led to this scenario.

However, Balchunas still sees Sonnenshein’s exit as a “big shakeup” that comes as Grayscale was “just beginning to see inflows again.”

BlackRock’s $IBIT surpasses Grayscale’s $GBTC in assets

As the news of Sonnenshein’s exit hits the market, the spot Bitcoin ETF market is seeing a shake up too.

This is because BlackRock’s $IBIT has surpassed $GBTC as largest spot Bitcoin ETF in assets under management.

Notably, $IBIT currently holds $17.94 billion worth of BTC, compared to $GBTC’s $17.81 billion, according to data shared by Coinbase Traders.