Grayscale In-Kind Swaps Open for 10 Crypto ETFs, From $80,300

Grayscale in-kind swaps are now open, and they skip the step every crypto holder hates: selling first. Since October 21, eligible investors can hand over coins and get shares of 10 Grayscale funds back, from the Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF to the new Hyperliquid and Zcash funds.

There is a door, though, and it is narrow. The smallest swap is about $80,300, for the Solana fund, and the biggest is about $364,800, for Bitcoin. Every swap has to go through an authorized participant, one of the trading firms that create and redeem ETF shares in bulk. So who can actually use it, and why should a trader who will never swap anything care?

Grayscale announced it with a card listing all 10 tickers:

Grayscale @Grayscale

Introducing in-kind investing at Grayscale: contribute eligible digital assets directly in exchange for shares of a Grayscale product.

Benefits for investors include:
– Reduced burden of self-custody
– Potentially lower execution costs
– Incorporation into conventional

3:03 PM · Oct 21, 2026 View on X

What Does Grayscale In-Kind Mean?

It means coins go in and fund shares come out, with no cash in between. That is what an in-kind ETF swap is. Until now, a holder with 5 BTC who wanted Grayscale’s ETF had to sell on an exchange, wait for the dollars, then buy the shares. That is two trades, two spreads, and a sale that can land on a tax bill.

In-kind cuts that to one move. The holder’s coins are delivered into the fund’s custody and the fund issues new shares against them. On the way back, an in-kind redemption pays out in the coin itself. Grayscale’s press release only describes the way in.

The plumbing has existed for a while. The SEC approved in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETPs on July 29, 2025, but only for the trading firms in the middle. What is new is Grayscale opening that pipe to outside holders who bring their own coins.

Which Grayscale Funds Take Coins, and What Is the Minimum?

All 10 funds take coins, and the minimum is one block of 10,000 shares. The Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF closed at $36.48 on October 20, and 10,000 shares at that price is exactly Grayscale’s $364,800 figure. The same math holds for the Solana Staking ETF at $8.03 and the Hyperliquid Staking ETF at $28.26.

The full list, with the release’s approximate minimums at October 20 prices:

• Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC): $364,800
• Zcash ETF (ZCSH): $322,600
• Hyperliquid Staking ETF (HYPG): $282,600
• XRP Trust ETF (GXRP): $257,000
• Avalanche Staking ETF (GAVA): $235,800
• Ethereum Staking Mini ETF (ETH): $232,300
• Sui Staking ETF (GSUI): $148,400
• Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK): $107,900
• Dogecoin Trust ETF (GDOG): $95,550
• Solana Staking ETF (GSOL): $80,300

Because the minimum is a fixed number of shares, it moves with the price. After Thursday’s dip, the Bitcoin Mini Trust closed at $35.89 on Friday, so the entry ticket fell to about $358,900. Solana’s slipped to about $78,400.

Who Can Use In-Kind Swaps?

Big holders with an intermediary. Someone with a hardware wallet and a brokerage app won’t get through the door. Grayscale’s release says investors “must work with an Authorized Participant or another conduit to an Authorized Participant”, and adds facilitator fees and product terms on top.

That points at a short list: funds, family offices, advisers with clients sitting on coins, and early holders who would rather have shares in a brokerage or retirement account than keys in a drawer. Grayscale pitches it as an exit from self-custody. Steve Vanourny, Grayscale’s head of index, said that “with growing cybersecurity threats, including self-custody and DeFi exploits,” institutional custody “is increasingly valuable.”

The other perks are about what the shares can do once they are in a brokerage account: serve as margin or collateral, sit under listed options, and go into estate plans. The release also lists costs. In-kind moves can carry market impact, slippage and timing risk. Shares can trade at a premium or discount to the coins behind them. And “tax treatment is uncertain and may trigger taxable events”, in particular when someone brings a token other than the one the fund holds. Anyone sitting on coins bought cheaply should ask a tax adviser before treating this as a free switch.

DISCOVER: Bitcoin ETF Flows: Week Ends Up $301M After $636M Exit

Why Should Traders Care About Grayscale In-Kind Flows?

Because an in-kind inflow is not a buyer. When a whale swaps 5 BTC for Bitcoin Mini Trust shares, the fund grows by 5 BTC and the daily flow tables show a fresh creation. Not one coin was bought on an exchange to make it happen.

That matters for how we read ETF flows. A string of green days usually reads as new money pushing on spot. With in-kind open to outside holders, part of that green can be coins that were already in the market and simply changed wrapper. The same goes the other way for redemptions paid out in coin. Our weekly ETF flow recaps and pieces like Ethereum ETF outflows count creations and redemptions, so a big Grayscale day now deserves a second look before anyone reads it as demand.

It also tells you where the ETF race is heading. BTC, ETH, SOL and HYPE holders can now park coins in a regulated fund without selling them on an exchange first. If rivals copy it, the fight for big holders moves from fees to who makes the switch easiest.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Where Is BTC as Coins Move Into ETFs?

Sitting on its 50-day average with little room to spare. The BTC price trades at $80,729 at the time of writing, down 1.1% in 24 hours and just under the 50-day EMA at $80,851.

• The first ceiling: $82,061. Friday’s high, where the bounce after Thursday’s drop ran out.
• The bigger ceiling: $84,898. Wednesday’s high, the top of this week’s range.
• The floor to defend: $80,394. The October 8 low, with the $79,800 wick from October 15 just under it.
• The deeper support: $76,269. The 200-day EMA, about 5.5% below the price.

In the bull case, BTC reclaims the 50-day, clears $82,061 and retests $84,898. In the base case, it chops between $80,394 and $82,061 into the Fed meeting on October 28. In the bear case, a daily close under $79,800 opens the way to the 200-day near $76,300.

EXPLORE: Your First Crypto Wallet, Set Up Safely: Hot vs Cold and the Seed Phrase

For most of us, Grayscale in-kind changes nothing on Monday morning: $80,300 is a lot of SOL. The real change is in the numbers we all watch. From now on, a big creation day at Grayscale may just be a whale changing wrapper.

Written by

VikingXBT

On the climb since 2017. Trades futures and reads onchain data. Automates the boring parts.

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