Announced Wednesday, the asset manager will continue to donate one-third of the management fees from its Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust to the ETC Cooperative each quarter through 2021.
Grayscale Investments has committed to financially supporting development of the ethereum classic (ETC) cryptocurrency for another two years.
“It is a big vote of confidence which we deeply appreciate. This funding allows us to continue our support of the ETC protocol and ecosystem”, ETC Cooperative executive director Bob Summerwill said by private message. “We will provide grants for key projects, as we have through 2018 and 2019.»
Since 2017, Grayscale has donated a total of $1.1 million, including $338,000 in 2019, to the cooperative, which funds development of the protocol behind the 15th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Grayscale manages some $80 million of assets in its ethereum classic vehicle, with nearly 10 million shares backed by about 0.92 ETC each. The trust controls about 14 percent of the total supply of ETC, based on fund disclosures and data from ETC Block Explorer. The manager charges a fee of three percent of assets under management.
The company is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which is also the parent of CoinDesk.
Ethereum classic was created in 2016 as a splinter currency from ethereum (ETH) after the team leading development for the latter made a controversial decision to roll back a hacker’s transactions.
More recently, however, ETC has been building bridges with its sister chain. Recent hard forks, or system-wide upgrades, in September 2019 and January 2020 added ethereum-based updates to ethereum classic for improved interoperability.
The ethereum classic team expects to achieve “protocol parity with ETH” from a pending hard fork known as Aztlán, Summerwill said.
Harbor Tokenizes $100 Million in Real Estate Funds on Ethereum Blockchain
The startup Harbor announced a partnership with Seattle-based real estate investment firm iCap Equity to tokenize $100 million in real estate funds.
On Sept. 16, Harbor announced in a blog post that iCap Equity is using Harbor’s blockchain-enabled platform to improve its liquidity in four of its real estate funds which manages over $100 million in assets.
Harbor created the tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, which represent portions of the funds. The partnership between the two companies will allow iCap Equity’s investors and placement agents to buy and sell iCap securities with one another.
Tokenization of the funds will purportedly improve liquidity for real estate investors. Chris Christensen, iCap Equity CEO added:
“iCap provides high-yield investment opportunities for investors, but those investments typically come with a 3 to 5 year lock-up period because they are based in real estate. Now, with Harbor, we are able to provide the same strong returns, but also an option for investors to more easily liquidate if desired.”
Tokenization giving more access to investors
As Cointelegraph recently reported, the Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange is tokenizing a $25 million movie fund together with Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes. The Daywalker Movie Fund will invest in future movies and TV shows produced by Snipes and his production studio Maandi House. The fund will offer investors a share in the profit of its productions, as well as confer extra benefits such as invitations to movie premieres.
