Company: GBTC
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-029408
Chunk: 66

Company: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 66
---
 Ether. In the event a high-profile contributor to the Bitcoin Network, or closely associated supporting infrastructure and applications such as Layer 2 networks or other scaling solutions, is perceived as no longer contributing to such networks due to death, retirement, withdrawal, incapacity, or otherwise, whether or not such perception is valid, it could negatively affect the price of Bitcoin, which could adversely impact the value of the Shares. 

Digital assets may have concentrated ownership and large sales or distributions by holders of such digital assets, or any ability to participate in or otherwise influence a digital asset’s underlying network, could have an adverse effect on the market price of such digital asset. 

As of December 31, 2024, the largest 100 Bitcoin wallets held approximately 15% of the Bitcoin in circulation. Moreover, it is possible that other persons or entities control multiple wallets that collectively hold a significant amount of Bitcoin, even if they individually only hold a small amount, and it is possible that some of these wallets are controlled by the same person or entity. As a result of this concentration of ownership, large sales or distributions by such holders could have an adverse effect on the market price of Bitcoin. 

If the digital asset award for mining blocks and transaction fees for recording transactions on the Bitcoin Network are not sufficiently high to incentivize miners, or if certain jurisdictions continue to limit or otherwise regulate mining activities, miners may cease expanding processing power or demand high transaction fees, which could negatively impact the value of Bitcoin and the value of the Shares. 

If the digital asset rewards for mining blocks or the transaction fees for recording transactions on the Bitcoin Network are not sufficiently high to incentivize miners, or if certain jurisdictions continue to limit or otherwise regulate mining activities, miners may cease expending processing power to mine blocks and confirmations of transactions on the Bitcoin Blockchain could be slowed. Currently, the fixed reward for solving a new block is 3.125 Bitcoin per block. The amount of Bitcoin rewarded for solving a new block is expected to decrease by half after every 210,000 blocks. The next halving is expected to occur mid-2028 and roughly every four years thereafter, until the amount of Bitcoin in existence reaches the pre-determined 21 million Bitcoin. For example, the realization of one or more of the following risks could materially adversely affect the value of the Shares: 

•Over the past several years, digital asset mining operations have evolved from individual users mining with computer processors, graphics processing units and first-generation application specific integrated circuit machines to “professionalized” mining operations