The World’s Largest Crypto Asset Management Firm Launching Support for Cardano

Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto asset management firm, is adding Cardano (ADA) to its suite of investment products. The firm says it’s adding ADA to the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund, which offers retail and institutional investors exposure to a basket of altcoins.

Although it’s a new addition, Grayscale is making ADA the third-largest holding in the fund. As of July 1st, the fund consists of 67.47% Bitcoin (BTC), 25.39% Ethereum (ETH), and 4.26% Cardano (ADA).

About 1% or less of the fund is allocated to Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), and Chainlink (LINK).

Grayscale used to hold XRP in the fund but removed it early this year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Ripple of selling the crypto asset as an unregistered security.

Grayscale says it’s considering whether to support a long list of altcoins, including Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC).

Cardano is a third-generation blockchain network launched by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson in September 2017 in a bid to create a “more balanced and sustainable ecosystem” for cryptocurrencies.

The Cardano community is working to solve the challenges of scalability, energy consumption, high fees, and the ability to interact and exchange with regular fiat money, and to improve on its predecessors, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Cardano uses a proof-of-stake protocol named Ouroboros in contrast to Bitcoin and Ethereum which use proof-of-work protocols. Proof-of-stake blockchains use significantly less energy than proof-of-work chains. In February 2021, Hoskinson estimated the Cardano network used 6 GWh annually, less than 0.01% of the 110.53 TWh used by the Bitcoin network as estimated by the University of Cambridge. Cardano is currently the biggest proof of stake cryptocurrency in 2021.

As of May 2021, Cardano is the fifth-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The platform is expected to roll out smart contracts in August which would make it a direct competitor to Ethereum, targeting its first-mover advantage.