Vice President of Marketing at Grayscale: How does Grayscale market GBTC?

Source: Seres Lu, Vice President of Marketing at Grayscale; Compiled by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

GBTC was listed on the New York Stock Exchange Arca on January 11, 2024, becoming the world's first It is also one of the largest spot Bitcoin ETFs and released a new brand campaign for GBTC on the same day. We sat down with Seres Lu, Grayscale’s VP of Marketing, to better understand Grayscale’s approach to marketing GBTC and how we plan to stand out from the crowd of other issuers.

(Note: GBTC is not a fund registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act") and is not affiliated with most Exchange-traded products, or ETFs, are not regulated under the 1940 Act.)

Broadly speaking, How does Grayscale market GBTC?

GBTC is different from other Bitcoin ETFs because it existed as a Bitcoin investment fund before it became an ETF. This means we started advertising GBTC long before many other products were conceived.

Our activity on GBTC, both pre-ETF and as an ETF, is the same. We focus on what makesGBBTC unique: it is the largest Bitcoin fund in the world. By the way, we now claim another distinction – we are actuallyalso the first spot Bitcoin ETF to begin pre-market trading in the United States.

Interestingly, due to GBTC’s operating record (we have been reporting to the SEC since January 2020), we are designated as a Well-Known Experienced Issuer (“WKSI”). This designation allows us to more easily market our GBTC on television and on a wider variety of non-interactive channels and platforms.

Now that GBTC is an ETF, will our marketing strategy change?

This is not the case, as a large part of what sets GBTC apart from its competitors stems from the fact that it is already a publicly traded Bitcoin fund with billions in AUM and numerous investors . Over the past decade, GBTC has gained widespread recognition and is known to many investors as the original investment product that made Bitcoin available for use in brokerage and retirement accounts. We want investors to start with GBTC when considering investing in Bitcoin.

Why choose GBTC? what happened?

We believe that GBTC is a unique financial brand.

What does this mean? GBTC’s AUM size, operational history, tight spreads – these are all desirable characteristics that many investors and market participants value in a financial product. Additionally, GBTC is sponsored by Grayscale, itself a brand in the crypto industry.

I think that with 11 different issuers entering the market with Bitcoin ETFs at the same time, many investors may assume that all issuers are created equal, but we believe that is not the case. I can only defend Grayscale and GBTC, we didn't get into this game in January 2024, we got into this game in September 2013. We are one of the few cryptocurrency specialist asset managers. We have a long-term belief in cryptocurrencies. We do a lot of research around Bitcoin. GBTC was never the result of company FOMO around an asset class or a fight for market share, but rather the flagship product of our decade-long commitment to making more investors accessible.

How would you describe your marketing strategy?

We believe that cryptocurrency is an asset class worthy of investors' consideration, and Grayscale always strives to launch advertisements worthy of investors' attention. We intentionally avoided imagery associated with the early days of cryptocurrency and instead focused on trying to get our message across clearly, directly, and tangibly.

We like to put our creativity into something that feels familiar yet traditional. Maybe you’ve seen our keyboard ads featuring GBTC, or our retro carry-on GIFs displayed outdoors at airports. Humor is also a consistent feature of our creativity, especially in our advertising; we believe that audiences are best entertained by clever humor.

We hope that when people see GBTC ads in the wild, whether in their transit centers, on TV, or on their favorite websites and social platforms, they immediately understand our message messaging, and in turn, our messaging respects their intelligence and resonates with their investment aspirations.

What is the target audience?

WhileGBTC may not be suitable for all investors, anyone with a brokerage account can invest in it, so this is the largest possible audience. However, I think we are speaking to an audience that is interested in diversifying their portfolio into new asset classes. We target them not based on demographics, but based on their motivations for investing in cryptocurrencies. As a product, we hope that some unique features of GBTC will attract them. As a company, we hope Grayscale’s position in the crypto industry inspires their choice.

What do you think are the main challenges in marketing GBTC?

With the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, GBTC is undoubtedly on the defensive. I discussed above why we believe GBTC is a unique financial brand and these characteristics are something we are proud of. However, we must also answer the question: Do investors care? In other words, what characteristics do investors care about? We can’t get so caught up in what we think is special about our product that we lose sight of the perspective of the audience we’re trying to reach. The reality is that this has suddenly become a very crowded space, so we must continue to differentiate ourselves in a way that is consistent with GBTC's history and unique qualities. Perhaps this means some investors will choose to pursue other product options, but our hope and expectation is that we will also attract many new investors and capital allocators.