Grayscale is launching its first European ETF, the Grayscale Future of Finance UCITS, which will list on the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, and Deutsche Börse Xetra.
The fund will be based on the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index which tracks companies that represent the “future of finance”.
These include stocks such as Silvergate Capital, PayPal, Coinbase and Robinhood — and other firms that use digital assets, tech firms that enable digital data transactions, and digital asset infrastructure firms, such as those in crypto mining and energy management.
“With growing global demand from both institutional and individual investors for Grayscale products, we’re thrilled to be expanding our offering in Europe through the UCITS wrapper,” Michael Sonnenshein, chief executive at Grayscale, said in a statement.
Grayscale is the world’s largest digital currency asset manager. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, the firm has close to $40bn in assets under management across 18 investment products. Sonnenshein has told Financial News that the firm was seeking to get its US-based products approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission to become full-fledged ETFs.
“This product draws upon our historical strengths, while furthering our evolution as an asset manager that helps investors build portfolios that can stand the test of time,” Sonnenshein said.
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David LaValle, global head of ETFs at Grayscale, added that the firm believes that the digital economy will be a major driver for the development and growth of the global economy.
“Through [Grayscale Future of Finance], European investors now have the opportunity to receive exposure to the companies that are pivotal to the evolution of the global financial system,” LaValle said.
The majority of assets under Grayscale’s management are within its bitcoin and ether trusts.
Both cryptocurrencies have lost 25% or more of their value in the past 30 days as a crash in stablecoin Terra and crypto coin Luna roil the asset class.
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