21.co taps ETF veteran to aid ‘ambitious global expansion’

A former executive at one of the world’s largest ETF providers is set to join 21.co as it aims to expand across markets and product types.

Mandy Chiu is now the Europe-based ETP issuer’s head of financial product development — a role created “to meet our ambitious global expansion and overall company growth,” according to 21.co president Ophelia Snyder.

“She will be leading our global teams to continuously enhance existing products while developing new products that take investors through the journey of crypto and blockchain investments, with the same stringent approaches of [traditional finance],” Snyder told Blockworks.

Chiu joins from Tabula Investment Management, where she was the London-based ETF firm’s chief product officer. Before that, she was State Street Global Advisors’ (SSGA) head of ETF products for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions.

SSGA’s 138 US ETFs manage about $1 trillion in assets. They rank third, behind only BlackRock and Vanguard in this domain.

As a State Street Global Advisors executive from February 2016 to December 2021, Chiu Managed about 110 ETFs — with $80 billion in assets — across EMEA and APAC, according to her Linkedin profile.

While Switzerland-based 21Shares has built a large crypto ETP lineup in Europe in recent years, it does not intend to stop there.

The hire comes as 21Shares pursues ETF launches in the US with Ark Invest. It first partnered with the Cathie Wood-led firm in 2021 as part of a joint filing for a spot bitcoin ETF — a type of fund it most recently re-filed for in April.

The companies have proposed to launch seven crypto ETFs in the country so far, including others that would invest in bitcoin and ether futures contracts, as well as a spot ether offering.

Ark Invest chief operating officer Tom Staudt told Blockworks last week the firm — with help from 21Shares — expects to have “the most encompassing, most complete, most diverse and deepest” crypto ETF suite in the US.

Though the US Securities and Exchange Commission has never allowed a spot bitcoin ETF to come to market, some industry watchers have suggested that an August court win by Grayscale Investments over the regulator made such an approval more likely.

The SEC is slated to rule on the proposed Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF by Jan. 10.

“With 21Shares’ deep-rooted crypto legacy and ARK’s global leading role in disruptive technology and thematic investments, the partnership will look to bring more crypto education and products to the market,” Snyder said.

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