Though crypto is said to be decentralized, Grayscale’s[1] recognition of crypto assets certainly help define the trajectories of coin or token prices. However, more than just new product additions, asset removals are also key in understanding what institutional investors want – or don’t want.
No gray area here
In a press release, Grayscale Investments shared[2] it was changing the composition of the Digital Large Cap Fund’s portfolio. Furthermore, it sold some assets and used the proceeds to buy Avalanche [AVAX] and Polkadot [DOT]. AVAX and DOT each made up less than 2% of the fund.
In a press release, Grayscale reported[3],
“As a result of the rebalancing, SushiSwap (SUSHI) and Synthetix (SNX) have been removed from the CoinDesk DeFi Index and the DeFi Fund. No new tokens were added to the DeFi Fund.”
At press time, SushiSwap [SUSHI] – market cap 141 – was trading at $3.63 after rising by 0.81% in the past day, but plunging by 17.37% in the last week.
Meanwhile, Synthetix [SNX] – market cap rank 116 – was changing hands at $5.72, after rising by 1.52% in the last 24 hours, but diving by 20.67% in the past week.
Some DeFi users theorized that a reason for Grayscale removing SUSHI and SNX could be an attempt by the company to focus more on top 100 blockchains and coins/assets rather than DeFi tokens. However, at press time, Uniswap [UNI] made up 42.34% of the DeFi Fund[4]. This was followed by Curve [CRV], Aave [AAVE], Amp [AMP], MakerDAO [MKR], Compound [COMP], and Yearn Finance [YFI].
The snowball effect
So let’s take a look at Avalanche[5] [AVAX], which joined the Digital Large Cap Fund. With a market cap ranking of 10, AVAX was trading[6] at $88.55,
