After a decade as CEO of crypto pioneer Grayscale, Michael Sonnenshein steps down. The GBTC Trust has lost 330,000 Bitcoin since the beginning of the year.

Michael Sonnenshein has stepped down as CEO of Grayscale Investments, so reports the Wall Street Journal. In August, the crypto asset manager will appoint a former Goldman Sachs employee as its successor.

New CEO "Peter Mintzberg comes from Goldman Sachs and has more than 20 years of experience at well-known asset managers, including BlackRock, OppenheimerFunds and Invesco," according to a Twitter post by Barry Silbert.

Silbert is the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), Grayscale's parent company. He thanked Sonnenshein for playing "a crucial role in the launch of the first U.S. Bitcoin ETF's".

With the approval of the SEC on Jan. 11, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) was converted into an ETF, even though the original fund has been around since 2013. This makes the GBTC the first listed Bitcoin fund in history.

Since the conversion however, it has lost more than half of its Bitcoin holdings. Investors withdrew more than $17.6 billion worth of BTC, mainly because of the relatively high fee of 1.5 percent.

Nevertheless, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust remains the leading BTC index fund with 287,000 Bitcoin under management. Despite a huge net inflow, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust currently still stands at around 13,000 BTC under management.

After a negative run of several months, GBTC was able to enjoy a net inflow of $12.3 million in the past week. One reason: Grayscale recently applied for a new mini-ETF with unmatched low management fees of 0.15 percent per year.