Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, is launching a closed-end MakerDAO Trust, adding to its long list of digital asset investment vehicles. This is the third single asset trust the firm has announced within a week, following the launch of funds tracking decentralized AI project Bittensor's TAO cryptocurrency and Layer 1 network Sui’s eponymous token.

Like its existing funds, the product will give qualified investors and institutions the ability to gain exposure to MakerDAO’s MKR -2.79% governance token.

MakerDAO, a leading decentralized lending platform and stablecoin issuer, was one of the earliest DeFi projects. Its DAI stablecoin is the third largest behind Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, with a market capitalization above ​​$5 billion.

Ethereum-based MakerDAO is currently undergoing a period of reinvention under founder Rune Christensen’s “Endgame” plan, which will see it spin out any number of new products and services overseen by a potentially limitless number of “subDAOs.” In particular, Maker is looking to break further into the nascent on-chain credit and real-world asset markets.

“MakerDAO’s groundbreaking approach to stablecoins and on-chain credit has made it a cornerstone of decentralized finance (DeFi), and we anticipate that its long-awaited ‘Endgame’ transformation will further solidify its role in DeFi," Grayscale Head of Product and Research Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary told The Block in an email.

Grayscale’s two largest products, its spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds, both began as closed-end trusts and were converted after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the ETFs this year. Unlike ETFs, traders can not directly withdraw assets from closed-end trusts, which means the price of the trust and its underlying assets can diverge.

The firm, a unit of Digital Currency Group, issues at least 17 private single-asset funds for other protocol tokens including the Basic Attention Token, Chainlink and Zcash, as well as thematic funds that invest across vertices like decentralized finance and artificial intelligence.