GBTC is the publicly quoted symbol of shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust (“BIT”)— “an open-ended trust that is invested exclusively in bitcoin” & sponsored by Grayscale Investments. The Trust was formed on 9/13/13 & qualified for public trading on the OTCQX market on 3/25/15.

One major reason many hold GBTC & the BIT is that shares can be purchased in certain retirement accounts for potential tax advantages.

Now for a quick look at some of the differences in the BIT & GBTC and their historical prices as compared to the underlying asset — bitcoin (of which 1 share of each is to represent .1 bitcoin):

BIT

Only qualified accredited investors may invest directly into the BIT & purchase shares at the daily NAV. These shares “are restricted and subject to significant limitations on resale and transferability”.

Source: BIT 2015 Annual Report — http://www.otcmarkets.com/financialReportViewer?symbol=GBTC&id=151649 — Page 81

As we can see, historically the BIT NAV has pretty closely followed the underlying price of bitcoin.

GBTC