21Shares Aims to Have ETPs for Top 50 ‘Quality Assets’ by End of 2022
Investment firm’s latest offerings launched in Switzerland provide exposure to Aave, Chainlink and Uniswap
Blockworks Exclusive art by axel rangel
key takeaways
- 21Shares manages more than $2 billion in 26 cryptocurrency ETPs and 87 listings across 10 European and Swiss exchanges
- The firm plans to feature dozens more cryptocurrencies in ETPs by year-end
21Shares, the world’s largest issuer of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs), has launched three more such products in Switzerland as the firm looks to expand its offerings this year.
The company’s new ETPs, which launched on the BX Swiss exchange, have Aave (AAVE), Chainlink (LINK) and Uniswap (UNI) as their underlying assets. The offerings carry a fee of 250 basis points.
Each offers performance directly linked to the asset without leverage. 21Shares holds the underlying crypto assets in cold storage.
Aave allows users to borrow assets and earn interest on deposits, while Chainlink enables smart contracts to create efficient blockchains for real-time data and computation. Decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap offers a protocol that delivers liquidity and trading for tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
“DeFi is clearly a theme of great interest and activity in crypto and these three assets are some of the largest and best known infrastructural pieces underpinning a lot of DeFi activities,” Hany Rashwan, CEO and co-founder of 21Shares, told Blockworks. “These three assets are among the best of the space, offering loans, oracle and exchange infrastructure that is absolutely vital for the space to continue growing.”
LINK’s market capitalization was about $8 billion Tuesday afternoon, which was the 21st-highest among coins, according to CoinGecko. The market caps of UNI and AAVE are roughly $5.1 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively.
21Shares manages more than $2 billion in 26 cryptocurrency ETPs and 87 listings. Its products are listed on 10 regulated European and Swiss trading exchanges.
The firm currently offers 18 single-asset tracker ETPs. Its bitcoin and ether ETPs launched in February 2019 and March 2019, respectively.
Rashwan said lots of “very innovative projects across every crypto vertical” are not yet supported by ETPs, noting the firm aims to support what the firm considers the top 50 cryptocurrencies by the end of the year.
The firm evaluates new listings based on trading metrics, its team, investors, community and social reach, among other factors. The CEO declined to share specific assets 21Shares is considering for ETPs.
The company also anticipates listing additional indexes and more specialized products, such as its Short Bitcoin ETP, which borrows BTC and simultaneously sells it to create short exposure.
21Shares’ latest products follow its launch of a Crypto Mid-Cap Index ETP in December. Tracking an index that excludes bitcoin and ether, the product’s largest holding at the time of launch was binance coin (BNB), with a nearly 31% weighting.
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