Grayscale Investments, the cryptocurrency-trust manager vying for U.S. approval to convert the world's biggest bitcoin trust into an exchange-traded fund, said Barry Silbert has resigned as its chairman.
Silbert is chief executive and founder of Grayscale parent Digital Currency Group, the sprawling crypto conglomerate that is embroiled in several ongoing disputes in the wake of the 2022 industry meltdown. DCG is the subject of lawsuits by U.S. regulators over a lending program by its former unit Genesis Global Capital and Gemini Trust Co., the crypto exchange founded by the billionaire Winklevoss brothers, that froze customer assets last year.
Silbert, 47, will be succeeded by Mark Shifke, the chief financial officer of DCG. Mark Murphy, the president of DCG, has also resigned from the Grayscale board. Grayscale didn't cite a reason for the board changes, which are effective Jan. 1, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The board shake-up comes ahead of a Jan. 10 deadline for the SEC to decide whether to greenlight a spot bitcoin ETF application filed by Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management LLC and 21Shares. The regulator could at that time also rule on other similar filings, including Grayscale's GBTC conversion application.
Grayscale took the SEC to court after the agency rejected an earlier proposal to convert the trust and won a pivotal victory when an appeals court rejected the regulator's ruling.
Matthew Kummell, senior vice president of operations at DCG, and Edward McGee, CFO of Grayscale, are also joining the board. Michael Sonnenshein, the Grayscale Chief Executive Officer, remains on the board.
"Grayscale and our investors will benefit from their respective experiences in the financial services and asset management industries as we prepare for Grayscale's next chapter," a Grayscale spokeswoman said in a statement to Bloomberg News.
In October, DCG and Gemini Trust were sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly failing to disclose to investors the risks of a crypto-lending program they started in 2021. Silbert was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. At the time, DCG said that the company will fight the state's allegations and that "there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by DCG, Barry Silbert, or its employees."
The SEC also sued Genesis Global Capital and Gemini earlier this year, alleging that their lending program Gemini Earn amounted to the offering of unregistered securities.
DCG and Silbert have also faced legal woes from their one-time partner Gemini, which
