CoinShares courting US investors in first asset management push

CoinShares, the European crypto company know for its ETPs, has big actively managed ambitions

article-image

T. Schneider/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

CoinShares, the European crypto ETP specialist, is making a first-time push into actively managed digital asset products — including a hedge fund targeting US institutions. 

Headquartered in Jersey, the publicly traded company has built its financial reputation by issuing liquid ETPs that encompass a diverse range of spot cryptocurrencies. Alongside this, the company has gained recognition for its valuable industry research. The firm operates a venture capital arm that accepts external investments, including contributions from US investors.

But an SEC filing on Wednesday indicated that CoinsShares has laid the groundwork for, and is nearing the launch of, what appears to be its first hedge fund open to accredited US investors. As of the most recent close in Europe, the company’s asset management arm, including assets held within its ETP products, amounted to approximately $3 billion.

The fund, CoinShares Bitcoin US Feeder Fund appears set to start trading in the coming weeks. Further details regarding its investment strategy weren’t immediately available. 

The feeder fund structure indicates that the vehicle is set to funnel limited partner capital into a master fund. This could in turn serve as a conduit for incoming capital from European investors. A spokesperson for CoinShares declined to comment.

The move comes as industry participants say launches of institutional-grade, liquid vehicles concentrating on cryptocurrencies have slowed, even as venture capital and private equity raises have picked up from lows notched in the fourth quarter of 2022. 

Many traditional finance firms that delved into cryptocurrency trading last year have chosen to put a hold on their expansion plans. Many have adopted a wait-and-see approach, likely due to the regulatory challenges posed by the SEC and CFTC in the United States.

The move, for CoinShares, follows a rocky end of 2022, including booking a 29% drop in combined income during the fourth quarter. The company had significant exposure to FTX.  

Asset management plans brewing 

CoinShares said in its first quarter earnings report that the company’s leadership sees opportunity in a shift from large investors toward active, alternative investment products. 

“Today’s investors seek more than passive exposure to digital assets and are demanding increasingly sophisticated investment alternatives,” the company wrote in its report. 

It then lifted the curtain on the company’s plans for a significant shift from its core ETP products. ETPs are the rough equivalent of ETFs in the US, where no spot bitcoin or crypto product has ever been approved. 

CoinShares said it would outline plans for an “alternative asset management business,” which would bring that division more in line with US crypto firms that engage in research, trading and asset management, including hedge funds.

The company wrote that it was in the process of vetting external talent and making hires to support the initiative, which would represent a shift from its long time proprietary trading strategies. New strategies open to external investors would be seeded by CoinShares, according to the company. 

For first-time runners of external capital, getting off the ground with seed money can provide an outlet to build up a track record before actively fundraising. It’s not clear how much external capital CoinShares would like to drum up for the new venture, which would likely include other strategies in addition to the bitcoin-focused hedge fund. 

The new business, like most hedge fund products, plans to impose performance fees on top of management fees. ETPs did not impose performance fees. 

The professed plan of CoinShares, led by CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti, is to “transform from a pure proprietary model with no external investors to a traditional active asset manager platform.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

LTIPPanalysis.png

Research

This report is a retroactive analysis of Arbitrum's Long Term Incentives Pilot Program (LTIPP). We collect relevant data at a protocol level and review bi-weekly updates to analyze recipients, their strategies, and the impact of the incentives on high level growth metrics. In particular, we want to highlight outperformers and underperformers, and glean any best practices or lessons learned for protocols distributing ARB incentives in the future. The overarching goal is to synthesize lessons learned that the DAO can reference as it begins thinking about future incentives programs–namely, the working group for incentives that is being actively discussed–especially as Timeboost introduces new conditions for trading and economic activity.

article-image

Sponsored

AI project Zerebro intersects the spheres of artificial intelligence, finance, art, music, and culture

article-image

Allmight is focused on furthering the United States’ leadership in crypto

article-image

The conditions Charles Schwab is waiting for before jumping headfirst into crypto could take shape soon

article-image

The FCA’s director of payments and digital assets shared some takeaways from chats with crypto companies and law firms

article-image

Let’s take a look at how US equities typically perform this time of year and what we might see in the coming days

article-image

Lumina introduces transparency and permissionless integration via an OP stack-based optimium, challenging traditional oracle designs