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I would guess it's a too risky investment for them.

There's actually a pretty low-risk 40% gain by doing some paperwork and having access to some big player only loans.

See my other comment for a link which describes the play in more detail.

Starting, not to mention promoting, a large fund takes a lot of work, trust me.

I’m not sure what 40% you are talking about though.

Not to say that Grayscale is really making the world a better place by providing an actually useful service.

Bitcoin is still very esoteric, buying bitcoins is nothing like investing in the stock market. A large (or small for that matter) financial institution probably wouldn't want to buy 10 or 100 m worth of bitcoins from Bitmex.

There may be issues in their legal structure the prohibit direct investment or their Board feels more comfortable offloading the technology risk to someone else. Alternatively, they may want certain liquidity features (or other options) that may not be directly available.