Grayscale Assures Investors: Ethereum Classic Trust Funds Not at 'Direct Risk'

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In the wake of a 51 percent attack on ethereum classic, the manager of an investment vehicle that holds the cryptocurrency has been fielding inquiries from investors looking to understand if the underlying assets in the fund are safe, CoinDesk has learned.

On Monday, the day after the reorganization of transactions on the ethereum classic blockchain came to light, Grayscale Investments, the creator of the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust, says it sent emails in response to "a few" clients asking for clarity on what the attack meant.

Grayscale said it had not sent a notification to all investors in the fund.

"The greatest risk this poses is to the integrity of the Ethereum Classic Network, as people may be less inclined to accept ETC given the increased double-spend risk. However, the coins within the ETC Trust are not at direct risk of theft or double-spending."

"So, the main risk of 51 percent attacks and blockchain reorgs is with people [who] accept the blockchain's asset; and mostly when they do so in large amounts in exchange for virtual goods or services that are non-reversible."

Beck also referenced a CoinDesk column by Michael J. Casey about the Vertcoin incident, which noted that 51 percent attacks are a risk faced by most proof-of-work blockchains and that some are more vulnerable than others depending on the amount of hashing power that secures the network.

"As often occurs following developments in the digital asset ecosystem, Grayscale received inquiries from a few investors about the recent 51 percent attack on the ETC network. We provided investors who contacted us with publicly-available information explaining how these attacks occur. These types of network attacks and their implications are also described in the disclosure documents we provide all investors."

Stepping back, it's important to note that despite the severity of the 51 percent attack - one exchange lost $200,000 as a result - ethereum classic's price has held fairly steady, at least by crypto's volatile standards.

Grayscale appears to have stayed out of the developer community's discussions of the attack.

Yaz Khoury of the Ethereum Classic Cooperative, which supports the development of the protocol, said that although Grayscale provides a fair amount of funding to his organization through the trust, "Other than provide financial help and advice to the Cooperative, they're very hands-off in how we manage to help the ETC community and ecosystem."

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