Grayscale launches Lido DAO and Optimism close-ended funds

Cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale Investments has launched two new investment products: the Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and the Grayscale Optimism Trust.

According to a recent announcement, the new Grayscale products give exposure to the governance tokens of Lido (LDO) and Optimism (OP). Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary said:

“Lido is helping to democratize staking on Ethereum, and Optimism is critical in allowing Ethereum to scale to compete with newer, faster Layer 1 blockchains. […] Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and Grayscale Optimism Trust provide investors with exposure to protocols helping to increase Ethereum’s efficiency, security, scalability, and adoption within the broader DeFi ecosystem — playing a critical role in the Ethereum story.”

Both Optimism and Lido are governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Those are a peculiar kind of organizational structure that make heavy use of blockchain technology for their operation.

In most cases, DAOs have token holders vote to approve or deny proposals — often spending the organization’s funds — on-chain in a process not dissimilar to what happens with stakeholders in traditional markets, but instantly and on-chain. The LDO and OP tokens are among the assets allowing their holders to vote in this fashion.

The new trusts highlight Grayscale’s expansion into Ethereum-related products. The latest financial derivatives are now available for daily subscriptions to eligible individual and institutional accredited investors.

The product featuring the LDO token is part of Grayscale’s “Financials Crypto Sector” category, which includes assets related to financial transactions and services. On the other hand, the trust giving exposure to OP is in the “Smart Contract Platforms Crypto Sector” category, which is focused on protocols supporting decentralized finance and applications.

The announcement follows recent reports that Grayscale Investments filed to convert its tradable Solana (SOL) close-ended trust into a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). The New York Stock Exchange Arca recently submitted a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission asking for a rule change that would allow it to list Grayscale’s product.

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