Grayscale Investments® Launches Grayscale® Aave Trust

Grayscale Investments®, an asset management firm with expertise in crypto investing, offering more than 20 crypto investment products, today announced the creation and public launch of Grayscale® Aave Trust (the “Trust”).

The Trust offers investors the opportunity to gain exposure to AAVE, the governance token for Aave’s platform. Aave was designed to help facilitate transparent, decentralized borrowing and lending by using self-executing smart contracts instead of traditional intermediaries, helping to minimize human bias and subjectivity. This means that users are able to borrow and lend on Aave without a credit score, ID, or background check – potentially offering more accessible and impartial borrowing options than those of traditional lenders.

“Grayscale Aave Trust gives investors exposure to a protocol with the potential to revolutionize traditional finance,” said Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary. “By leveraging blockchain technology and smart contracts, Aave's decentralized platform aims to optimize lending and borrowing while removing intermediaries and reducing reliance on human judgment.”

The Trust is now open for daily subscription by eligible individual and institutional accredited investors.* The Trust functions like Grayscale’s other single-asset investment trusts, and is solely invested in the token underpinning the Aave protocol (AAVE).

This press release is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal, nor shall there be any sale of any security in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction.

*Grayscale’s private placements are only available to Accredited Investors as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Most individuals are not Accredited Investors. An individual must earn more than $200,000 a year (or $300,000 per year with a spouse or spousal equivalent), have a net worth over $1 million either alone or together with a spouse or spousal equivalent, excluding their primary residence, or hold in good standing their Series 7, Series 65, or Series 82 professional certifications. Entities must have $5 million in liquid assets or all beneficial owners must be Accredited Investors.

Grayscale intends to attempt to have shares of new products quoted on a secondary market. However, there is no guarantee that Grayscale will be successful. Although the shares of certain products have been approved for trading on a secondary market, investors in the new products should not assume that the shares will ever obtain such an approval due to a variety of factors, including questions regulators, such as the SEC, FINRA, or other regulatory bodies may have regarding such products. As a result, shareholders of such products should be prepared to bear the risk of investment in the shares indefinitely. To date, certain products have not met their investment objective, and the shares of such products quoted on OTC Markets have not reflected the value of the digital assets held by such products, less such products’ expenses and other liabilities, but have instead traded at a premium over such value, which at times has been substantial. There have also been instances where the shares of certain products have traded at a discount. Private placement securities are speculative, illiquid, and entail a high level of risk, including the risk that an investor could lose their entire investment.

The Aave protocol was only launched in 2017 and the Aave protocol, aTokens, flash loans, GHO, or the Aave Network’s peer-to-peer lending and borrowing mechanisms may not function as intended, which could have an adverse impact on the value of AAVE and an investment in the Shares.

Extreme volatility of trading prices that many digital assets have experienced in recent periods and may continue to experience, could have a material adverse effect on the value of the Trust and the shares could lose all or substantially all of their value.

About Grayscale Investments® Grayscale enables investors to access the digital economy through a family of future-forward investment products. Founded in 2013, Grayscale has a decade-long track record and deep expertise as an asset management firm focused on crypto investing. Investors, advisors, and allocators turn to Grayscale for single asset, diversified, and thematic exposure. For more information, please follow @Grayscale or visit grayscale.com.

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