Litecoin, the world’s ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, will soon see an institutional listing in the form of an exchange-traded product (ETP) in Switzerland, as per a press release by crypto investment firm CoinShares today.
The firm’s investment products provide exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and a Litecoin (LTC) product would now be available to eligible institutional and individual investors throughout Europe.
The details
Called the ‘CoinShares Physical Litecoin,’ the product is one of the first-ever Litecoin-based investment products to be launched on a regulated exchange in Europe.
It would be listed on the regulated SIX Swiss Exchange under ticker ‘LITE.’ Each unit of LITE is backed with 0.20 LTC ($46.95) at launch, providing investors with passive exposure to the Litecoin network’s native asset.
BREAKING: CoinShares launches physically-backed #Litecoin ETP
— Market Meditations (@MrktMeditations) April 6, 2021
For the uninitiated, ETPs are institutional products that represent an underlying asset and are traded on the open market similar to equities and bonds.
Such products are, currently, one of the only ways for traditional investors to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies—unlike buying spot assets on an unregulated, unreliable crypto exchange.
And while Bitcoin and Ethereum already have similar ETPs in the European market, there are only a few Litecoin-focused ones. But that number is steadily growing.
“LITE comes hot on the heels of our Bitcoin and Ethereum product launches in 2021 and will benefit from the same robust and transparent physically-backed product structure,” said CoinShares head of product Townsend Lansing in a statement.
Why a Litecoin ETP?
Litecoin has, for long, been termed as the ‘digital silver’ alternative to Bitcoin (the ‘digital gold’). It was launched in October 2011—as one of the earliest Bitcoin forks—by ex-Google engineer Charlie Lee and has since grown to become one of the biggest cryptocurrencies.
Some of its various advantages over Bitcoin are quicker transaction times, lower fees, and faster block times (of 2.5 minutes). Newer and better privacy features are soon coming in the ‘Mimblewimble’ upgrade—giving the cryptocurrency a strong push on the fundamental side.
#MWEB is set to be the largest upgrade to the Litecoin network ever, promising to provide fungibility for all, while improving LTC’s scalability. Litecoin is positioning itself for the future. #Faster #Better #Stronger #SundayThoughts#LitecoinFACT #Litecoin $LTC
— Litecoin Foundation (@LTCFoundation) March 28, 2021
“As demand for digital assets amongst the traditional investment community steadily increases, we are starting to see the green shoots of demand for investment exposures outside of the top two dominant networks,” shared CoinShares chief revenue officer Frank Spiteri.
Meanwhile, the launch brings CoinShares’ investment products to seven. The firm has over $4 billion of assets under management on its platform, of which approximately two-thirds is in Bitcoin exposure and a small, but growing, share in Ethereum. But could Litecoin change that?
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