Edward McGee, Grayscale's chief financial officer, has stepped down after seven years with the crypto asset manager, according to multiple reports including filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. McGee resigned effective July 2, 2026 for personal reasons and not because of any disagreement with the company or its operations, policies or practices. The company has appointed Kathryn Masci and Daniel Plourde as interim co-chief financial officers. Masci will also serve as principal financial and accounting officer and join the board of managers, while Plourde has served as assistant treasurer of the Grayscale Funds Trust. Multiple Grayscale products filed 8-K disclosures to inform investors of the leadership change, including the Bitcoin Mini Trust and Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, among others.
Masci joined Grayscale in 2020 and most recently served as senior vice president of finance, according to the SEC filing. Before that, she held finance and accounting roles at Garrison Capital, Pzena Investment Management and Ernst & Young. Plourde joined Grayscale in 2022 after senior positions at Gabelli Asset Management and State Street Global Advisors, as reported by CoinDesk. The leadership changes follow another recent executive departure, with managing director and head of distribution and partnerships John Hoffman leaving Grayscale to join tokenized asset platform Ondo Finance just weeks ago, making McGee the second executive to depart in recent weeks. McGee's departure arrives amid a wider leadership overhaul at Grayscale and its parent company, with Peter Mintzberg replacing Michael Sonnenshein as CEO.
Grayscale has paused its IPO process, originally confidentially filed in November 2023, due to market conditions and is unlikely to restart before the fourth quarter, according to a person familiar with the matter previously told CoinDesk. The Stamford, Connecticut-based company has put its IPO plans on hold following the market conditions that led to the pause in IPO preparations. Founded in 2013 and owned by Digital Currency Group, Grayscale remains a major link between traditional finance and digital assets through regulated crypto investment products.
McGee's tenure covered a turning point for Grayscale as the firm converted its flagship Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) in January 2024 following a federal appeals court ruling in August 2023 that the SEC had wrongly rejected Grayscale's application. The GBTC held about $26.5 billion at the time of conversion, but its 1.5% fee structure is six times the 0.25% charged by BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, creating significant competitive disadvantage. This fee gap has reduced the fund's assets to approximately $8.5 billion by the end of March 2026, as reported by CoinDesk. The fund now manages roughly $8.5 billion as other, lower-fee ETFs have attracted investor money. Grayscale responded by launching lower-fee products like the Bitcoin Mini Trust, essentially creating a cheaper alternative to its own flagship fund. New product filings, including vehicles targeting assets like Solana, are expanding the addressable market for crypto ETFs.
