Grayscale says it has abandoned the rights to Ethereum Proof of Work (ETHPoW) tokens as it simply does not make sense.
Ethereum migrated away from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake in a major transition for the second most popular crypto token. Ethereum Merge was a key moment in crypto history as the transition was made to maintain ETHs relevance and lower the cost to keep the network up and running.
Some platforms maintained support for the forked version ETHPoW. Today, the market cap of old ETH is rather small at around $140 million.
Grayscale said as of the close of business on September 26, 2022, it will irrevocably abandon all of the rights to Ethereum Proof of Work tokens distributed to such Record Date Shareholders.
Grayscale stated:
“After a thorough review, Grayscale has, in consultation with the Products’ service providers, determined that the Products’ custodian does not support the ETHPoW tokens, nor have trading venues with meaningful liquidity developed for the ETHPoW tokens. As such, it is not possible to exercise the rights to acquire and sell the ETHPoW tokens, and on behalf of the Record Date Shareholders, Grayscale is abandoning the rights to these assets.”
Grayscale offers multiple crypto trading vehicles which trade on OTC Markets, the largest being its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), and the Ethereum Trust (ETHE).