Bitcoin Daily: Grayscale CEO Says Pension, Endowment Funds Driving Bitcoin Rally; NYC Bar Owner Selling Two Locales For Bitcoin

Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein told Bloomberg that the digital asset management firm has seen increased crypto investments from pension funds and endowments, driving digital asset growth and acceptance.

Grayscale’s 10 funds hold investor’s cryptocurrency shares in an unredeemable capacity, which can only be sold in the secondary market. This increases its scarcity and drives up its price, Sonnenshein said, per Bloomberg.

“This is a verifiable scarce asset and so when there are mechanisms that are removing them from circulation, that’s inherently making it an even scarcer asset,” said Sonnenshein, according to Bloomberg.

Grayscale’s funds manage $25 billion in digital assets, a dramatic increase from the $2 billion held a year ago, the report stated.

In other news, a bar owner in New York has put his two Hell’s Kitchen establishments up for sale — in exchange for cryptocurrency, New York Post reported.

Patrick Hughes is asking for 25 Bitcoins or 800 Ethereum tokens for Hellcat Annie’s and Scruffy Duffy’s. The deal, equivalent to about $875,000, would be the first restaurant sale in the U.S. to be paid for completely in cryptocurrency.

“I’m not aware of any other bars or restaurants that have been sold for crypto only,” Charles Cascarilla, CEO of Paxos Trust Company, told the Post. “But more and more people look at crypto as a monetary instrument. We’re really at a tipping point of its acceptance.”

Hughes said he sees cryptocurrency as a viable alternative to the dollar, owing to its digital, decentralized nature.

“Crypto is on fire, it’s a hot currency,” said Hughes, 56, according to the Post. “… The next crisis, you won’t have to run out and buy toilet paper. You can just use your dollars instead.”

Meanwhile, bitcoin rose to a new high on Friday, hitting $41,530, reported Reuters.

“Violent” inflationary market price movements have helped push bitcoin’s recent rally, said Reuters, citing Bank of America investment strategists, who also cautioned its bubble potential, saying it “blows-the-doors-off prior bubbles” of gold in the 1970s and the dotcom bubble in the 1990s.

As of 6:08 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday (Jan. 10) bitcoin sat at $38,398.137.