Bankrupt FTX affiliate Alameda sues Grayscale

(Reuters) -FTX said on Monday its affiliate Alameda Research had sued Grayscale Investments and its owner, cryptocurrency conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), alleging the digital asset manager was “enriching itself at shareholders’ expense”.

In a lawsuit filed with a Delaware court on Monday, Alameda attacked Grayscale for its high fees and its refusal to allow investors to redeem their shares from its two crypto-focused trusts, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and the Grayscale Ethereum Trust.

DCG is already under pressure after its unit Genesis Global Trading’s bankruptcy, spurred by a crypto rout last year that was worsened by the high-profile collapse of FTX.

Last year, Grayscale had sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after the regulator rejected the company’s proposal to convert GBTC into an exchange traded fund (ETF).

However, Grayscale is still charging fees far bigger than those typically paid to advisers on crypto-tied ETFs, Alameda alleged.

“The lawsuit filed by Sam Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, is misguided. Grayscale has been transparent in our efforts to obtain regulatory approval to convert GBTC into an ETF – an outcome that is undoubtedly the best long-term product structure for Grayscale’s investors,” a spokesperson for Grayscale said.

Alameda said it was suffering “hundreds of millions of dollars in harm” because of Grayscale’s actions.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Shailesh Kuber)