Jan Van Eck is a prominent figure in the world of cryptocurrency. He is the founder and CEO of VanEck, an investment firm specializing in digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. He has been involved with digital asset investing since 2015 and his company actively invests in projects related to cryptocurrencies, distributed ledger technology (DLT), smart contracts, security tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), among other areas.
In 2014 he founded the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) which was one of the first publicly traded bitcoin instruments. The trust holds bitcoins on behalf of its investors and provides exposure to its price movements without needing to purchase or store them directly. BIT was initially listed on OTCQX under the ticker GBTC but eventually moved to NYSE Arca where it trades today under ticker symbol GBTC.
Van Eck also co-founded Grayscale Investments LLC in 2013 which currently offers 10 different single-asset investments including Bitcoin Cash Investment Trust (BCHG), Ethereum Classic Investment Trust (ETCG), Litecoin Investment Trust (LTCN) and Horizen Investment Trust(ZEN). Each trust allows investors access to their respective underlying asset without having to buy or store them directly through Grayscale’s custodial services.
Grayscale also offers multi-asset products such as Digital Large Cap Fund which provides exposure to five large cap crypto currencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum , Ripple’s XRP token, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin . In June 2020 they launched Zcash Investment Trust(ZXEC) becoming only second publicly traded fund offering direct exposure into privacy coin – Zcash .
Jan van Eck served as a distinguished speaker at several international conferences discussing topics related with cryptocurrency markets , regulation , investor protection etc., participated at seminars for institutional investors providing insight about specific aspects of digital assets market like portfolio construction techniques for managing risk associated with volatile prices movements . He testified before US Senate Committee regarding cryptocurrency regulations proposing full disclosure requirement from exchanges related with order books ..etc
