Grayscale's Newest Crypto Investment Trust Will Hold Stellar Lumens

Grayscale Investments, the digital asset management firm operating under the Digital Currency Group umbrella, is adding support for Stellar lumens with a new investment product.

The company announced Thursday that it was launching the Stellar Lumens Trust, a "single-asset investment product" which exposes investors to lumens (XLM), the native asset of the Stellar network. Grayscale already offers single-asset trusts for a number of other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, ethereum classic, zen, litecoin, XRP and zcash.

The Stellar blockchain was built as a low-cost payment network, Grayscale noted in a press release, with the goal of providing impoverished communities with access to financial services. Founded by Jed McCaleb, the Stellar project has notably attracted the interest of IBM, which is building a cross-border payment rail on top of the network.

In a statement, Grayscale managing director Michael Sonnenshein noted that "the launch of this product will expand our coverage of the digital asset universe."

The company "will continue to provide investors access to established blockchain projects with substantial traction and resources," he said.

Grayscale's announcement comes on the heels of it reassuring existing customers that an investment vehicle for another of these established blockchain projects, ethereum classic, was not in any danger after a prolonged 51 percent attack on the network.

Stellar founder Jed McCaleb at Consensus 2018 image via CoinDesk archives.