Thomson Reuters

GBTC, a bitcoin investment trust, tries to track the price of bitcoin with its stock price.

The company announced a 91-for-1 stock split, which will bring down the price of a single share dramatically, making it more accessible to retail investors.



Grayscale Investment’s Bitcoin Investment Trust, a stock that seeks to mirror the price of bitcoin, announced Friday a 91-for-1 stock split that would drastically reduce the price of shares, making them more accessible to retail investors.

GBTC gained about 15% on the news, closing at $1,970 per share Friday. At current prices, the split would make the new price for a single share of the bitcoin trust $21.64.

The split won’t affect GBTC’s market value, which is worth $3.19 billion on the OTC market, but it will make shares more accessible to retail investors who may be more likely to buy the stock at the new lower prices than the old higher ones.

GBTC was the second most popular stock on millennial trading platform Stockpile last year. The app allows users to buy fractional shares of expensive companies. Through this stock split, the company may be able to capitalize on younger investors' interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

A GBTC spokesperson declined to comment on the announcement.

The company holds 0.0918 BTC for every share of the company, according to its website, and shares regularly move in-line with the price of bitcoin — both of which are down about 13% in the past week.

Shareholders will receive their 90 new shares on January 26, which will leave the company with 174,410,600 shares outstanding.

Shares of GBTC are up 1700% in the past year. Bitcoin is up 1659% in the same period.

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