Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_62b9da247e022" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Top holdings in the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) are IBM, Overstock.com and CME Group</li>
 <li>Miners make up about 17% of the fund today, which is down from 25% a year ago</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The portfolio manager of the largest blockchain ETF in the US is reducing the portfolio’s exposure to names trading with the price of bitcoin amid the current market conditions.



Bitcoin hovered around $21,000 Monday morning while ether stood at roughly $1,200 — down roughly 70% and 75%, respectively, from last November’s all-time highs.



Crypto companies are facing <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/celsius-lending-platform-suspends-withdrawals-and-transfers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">liquidity issues</a>, and some are freezing or putting restrictions on withdrawals. Certain bitcoin miners are <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-miner-bitfarms-sells-half-its-bitcoin-to-reduce-debt-boost-liquidity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">selling BTC</a> they intended to hold to shore up their balance sheets.



Michael Venuto, portfolio manager of Amplify Investments’ Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK), has positioned the fund defensively as crypto markets have soured.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-medium"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="281" height="300" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg" alt="Amplify Investments' Michael Venuto" class="wp-image-23421" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=281 281w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=959 959w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=241 241w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=244 244w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=205 205w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=75 75w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=47 47w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mike-Venuto-e1656349294681-281x300.jpg?w=1356 1356w" sizes="(max-width: 281px) 100vw, 281px" /><figcaption>Amplify Investments&#8217; Michael Venuto</figcaption></figure></div>


“We’re always looking to participate in the beta of the blockchain industry, but we’re also willing to hide out in high-quality names that are tangentially participating or doing it on the edges,” Venuto said.



BLOK, which launched in January 2018, currently has roughly $530 million in assets — off its high of more than $1 billion.



The fund is down nearly 52% year to date, according to FactSet data. Meanwhile, the index-tracking Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BLCN) and the First Trust Indxx Innovative Transaction &amp; Process ETF (LEGR) are down roughly 38% and 20%, respectively, the data shows.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Amplify ETF’s <a href="https://amplifyetfs.com/blok-holdings/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">top five holdings</a>, as of Monday, are IBM, Overstock.com, CME Group, Core Scientific and Accenture. Names more synonymous with the crypto space, such as Microstrategy and Coinbase, rank eighth and 11th in terms of weighting within the portfolio.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Miners, which made up about 25% of the portfolio a year ago, amount to about 17% of the fund today, Venuto added. In addition to Core Scientific, the fund still holds miners such as Hive Blockchain Technologies, Riot Blockchain and Hut 8 Mining. BLOK exited its position in <a href="https://northerndata.de/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Northern Data</a> in the fourth quarter of last year due to supply chain concerns.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“There’s a trend toward camels instead of unicorns, and it’s going to stay that way until we get clarity from our regulators or clarity on what our Fed is going to do,” Venuto said. “Can they carry the water through the desert? Those are the ones that we’re looking for.”



Blockworks spoke with Venuto to learn, in more detail, how he is positioning the portfolio amid the turmoil and what trends he is seeing in the space.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Blockworks: What do you make of the state of the blockchain industry right now? 



Venuto: This has obviously been a challenging environment because it’s very hard to talk about blockchain without having some sort of bitcoin or cryptocurrency beta.



There’s a lot of noise to the beta of the price movements of the underlying protocols and tokens, but in reality, there’s an enormous amount of work being done to actually create real applications and real use cases for this technology.&nbsp;



They’re not scared by the price movements; everybody expects volatility in a new technology, so I see a lot of optimism and a lot of investment going on.&nbsp;



Blockworks: How do you go about managing BLOK in this type of environment?



Venuto: This isn’t our first winter. We launched four years ago, and in the world of blockchain, that makes us like a grandma.



The first winter we went through was in the second half of 2018 and during that time we did exactly what we’re doing right now, which is, we moved to higher-quality companies like IBM and Accenture that are using blockchain but are not the high-flying names that are going to go up 300% when bitcoin moves.



We still have those [companies], but a year ago they were 50% of the portfolio. Now they’re about 25%.



Right now, [CME] is one of the biggest positions in BLOK because they participate in the volatility. They’re the one-stop-shop to be long or short bitcoin for traditional finance.



Blockworks: How have you adjusted your outlook on miners?



Venuto: Back in December, when we started to see the weakness in crypto, we started to look at our portfolio of miners — because miners are always a big part of a blockchain fund.



We’ve really honed in on the [miners] we think can survive a crypto winter or can access traditional finance markets so that they don’t have to sell off bitcoin and panic.



Today we’re down to owning about half of the publicly traded miners because we spent the time talking with a lot of them, doing the on-site visits and deciding which ones we think can access markets.



You start to move toward the higher-quality ones, meaning the ones that have a lot of cash on their balance sheet or have already secured traditional finance exposure.



Blockworks: What specific companies or sectors do you have your eye on?



Venuto: New York Community Bank is now working with Figure, which is a private company, to generate mortgages on the blockchain. They’re getting it done in five hours instead of five weeks. That gives them a huge competitive advantage over Wells Fargo or whatever.



We’re also this year starting to add some of the metaverse-type names, such as <a href="https://www.roblox.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Roblox</a>. We have a tiny position in Facebook because I’m trying to figure out if they’re going to lead here or not.&nbsp;&nbsp;



A recent purchase for us was <a href="https://nubank.com.br/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nubank</a>…They made a big announcement making transactions in crypto available to all its users in Brazil.



A backer of Nubank is Warren Buffett…so the guy who calls it rat poison is backing this amazing fintech company that’s servicing all these investors in Brazil and making crypto a very real thing.&nbsp;&nbsp;



We’re constantly looking for names in the [non-fungible token] space. Nothing has materialized yet in the public markets that we feel comfortable with.



Blockworks: How does the level of BLOK’s assets under management, which has been cut in half in recent months, affect the way you run the strategy?



Venuto: It actually makes things easier. We’ve always been on the cutting edge of companies — we were able to invest in small-cap companies — however at $1 billion in opportunity set, you’ve got to be a little bit more diverse to make sure you maintain liquidity.



Am I happy being down 50%? No. Do I feel like our active management has made a difference? Yeah, absolutely. We are more positioned conservatively right now with things like CME…and we’re still getting very nice beta on the up days, primarily because of direct exposure to bitcoin through the Canadian spot ETFs out there.



Blockworks: How could the approval of a spot bitcoin ETF impact BLOK?



Venuto: I’m all for a spot bitcoin ETF in the US and I think it could happen amazingly quickly. It could literally happen the day after the administration says this is what bitcoin is.



I expect they’re going to come out and say something along the lines of [bitcoin’s] not a currency, it’s a commodity asset…but as an investment, even though it’s not a security, it’s still subject to the same disclosure rules as a security.&nbsp;



What does that change for BLOK? Honestly nothing. When [the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO)] <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bito-on-track-to-be-first-fund-in-history-to-hit-1b-in-aum-in-two-days/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">came out and got $1 billion</a>, BLOK was taking in money every day during that time because we were in a bull run.”



BLOK will be an infrastructure play on the technology and the public companies, and a spot bitcoin ETF will be a play on owning the biggest protocol. I see no risk for us. I see only upside because it will bring the [space] up, and I will probably own it in BLOK.



Blockworks: How long do you expect the so-called crypto winter to last?



Venuto: The current situation needs either regulation or it needs the Fed to stop trying to raise rates. Once they say anything dovish again, I would expect the crypto cycle to turn right back on.



We need regulatory clarity. It’s funny because we all say regulators need to come in. I don’t really want them in — I just want them to say this is how we’re going to treat [crypto], here are the rules and now you can go play.&nbsp;



We’re basically all playing chess on a board that doesn’t have a finite amount of squares. You don’t know what you can get in trouble for, and institutions don’t need that risk.



This interview has been edited for length and clarity.



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Amplify’s BLOK ETF Flocks to ‘High-Quality’ Names Amid Downturn

<div id="highlights-block_620acce98acac" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The Amplify Inflation Fighter ETF (IWIN) can invest up to 20% of net assets in bitcoin futures contracts and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)</li>
 <li>The firm would only seek to launch a spot bitcoin ETF if it could offer something “different and compelling,” CEO says</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Despite the recent market downturn, the head of Amplify ETFs is bullish on bitcoin as a hedge against inflation — and plans to ramp up exposure to the digital asset in the firm’s latest exchange-traded fund. 



The company, perhaps best known for its Amplify Transformational Data ETF (BLOK), launched its Inflation Fighter ETF (IWIN) earlier this month.



The fund seeks to identify stocks and commodities — such as agriculture, energy, precious metals and bitcoin — positioned to weather inflation. The consumer price index <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/market-recap-inflation-keeps-rising-stocks-and-cryptos-slide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increased 0.6% in January</a>, pushing the year-over-year figure to 7.5% — the quickest rise since 1982.



Inflation, in theory, should be good for bitcoin, but its price hit $37,000 earlier this month and is now down nearly 40% from its November high of $69,000.



“We’d argue that what’s happened in the last few months is more about a risk-off trade given the global macro environment of raising rates being expected from the US central bank,” Amplify CEO Christian Magoon told Blockworks. “Usually that global macro passes and factors matter, and we still think that bitcoin is something you want to own … in an inflationary environment.”



IWIN’s bitcoin exposure is capped at 20% of net assets and consists of bitcoin futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), including up to 15% in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). It does not hold bitcoin directly.



The fund’s allocation to GBTC and bitcoin futures will likely increase over time, Magoon said.&nbsp;



Dave Nadig, chief investment officer and director of research of ETF Trends and ETF Database, said WisdomTree “opened the door” <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/which-mutual-funds-etfs-are-making-crypto-related-investments/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">by allowing</a> its Enhanced Commodity Strategy Fund (GCC) to invest up to 5% in bitcoin futures.



“I think this is going to be increasingly common,” Nadig told Blockworks. “Since the best most traditional finance folks can do with bitcoin is think of it as digital gold, it makes sense to see it as a small allocation in a commodities or inflation strategy.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BLOK’s evolution, future products</h3>



While IWIN gains exposure to bitcoin through GBTC and futures contracts, Amplify’s Transformational Data ETF invests in blockchain and crypto companies, as well as Canadian spot bitcoin ETFs.



BLOK, the largest blockchain ETF in the US, has grown to about $1 billion since launching in January 2018.



Four years ago, the fund’s holdings were limited to several mining and semiconductor companies, as well as companies investing in private blockchain stakes. It now consists of more pure-play blockchain companies, Magoon noted.



The fund’s top five holdings are SBI Holdings, Coinbase, Nvidia, CME Group and Silvergate. Rounding out the top 10 are Hut 8 Mining, Galaxy Digital, GMO Internet, Hive Blockchain Technologies and MicroStrategy.



“Most of the development and opportunity in the world of blockchain has been in that one single application of cryptocurrency,” Magoon said. “Most of the companies that are in the portfolio have a fairly high correlation to the direction of crypto.”



BLOK could end up investing in US spot bitcoin ETFs and spot ether ETFs — if the US Securities and Exchange Commission gives them the greenlight — as well as crypto assets directly.



Amplify filed for a Decentralized Finance &amp; Crypto Exposure ETF in September. Magoon declined to share an update.&nbsp;



The fund plans to invest about half its assets in the stocks of DeFi companies, and the remainder in bitcoin futures, bitcoin ETFs and GBTC.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">A spot bitcoin ETF?</h3>



Though some industry watchers <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/when-will-the-sec-approve-a-spot-bitcoin-etf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">say</a> they don’t expect a spot bitcoin ETF to launch in the US until at least 2023, Magoon said it’s likely the SEC will approve one this year.



Futures-based bitcoin ETFs, which the SEC permitted to launch in October, are “messy,” Magoon said, adding that they bring complexities and risks to investors.



“For the SEC to believe the best product for investors is a futures-based product seems questionable at best when spot price products are available in North America, are functioning appropriately, use the same benchmark as futures-based products, cost less and deliver performance that’s nearly identical to the underlying investment objective,” he said.



Amplify is considering launching a spot bitcoin ETF, Magoon said, adding that competition is steep, as about a dozen other firms have undertaken similar steps.&nbsp;



“Generally our brand, our approach is not to launch the fifth or the 10th version of what’s already out there,” he said. “So if you’re not the first or the second or the third or the seventh, you better have something that’s quite different or compelling.”



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Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter</a>.



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Amplify ETFs CEO: You Want to Own Bitcoin Amid Inflation

<div id="highlights-block_6154906f429fd" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK)’s returns are -5.6% in the trailing month, though it has returned about 98% over the past year</li>
 <li>Leveraged and inverse products could garner attention given the volatility of blockchain-focused investments and the absence of a direct bitcoin ETF, industry watcher says </li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Toroso Investments is looking to bring to market ETFs that would seek daily investment results that are based on the largest blockchain ETF in the US.&nbsp;



The Elevate Shares 2X Daily Blockchain ETF (BLOC) seeks daily leveraged investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times the performance of <a href="https://amplifyetfs.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amplify Investments</a>’ Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK), according to a Sept. 28 <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1742912/000089418921006961/elevateshares485a.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC disclosure</a>.



Toroso, which has subadvised BLOK since its 2018 launch, has 26 ETFs trading in the US with about $2.6 billion of combined assets, <a href="https://www.etf.com/channels/toroso-investments-etfs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to ETF.com</a>.  



BLOK, which has $1.2 billion in assets, invests in the equity securities of companies actively involved in the development and utilization of blockchain technologies. The ETF’s returns in the trailing month are -5.6%, as of Sept. 27, according to FactSet data, though it has returned about 98% over the past year.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“BLOK was one of the most volatile unleveraged ETFs in Morningstar’s database during the year through August 30, 2021, so leveraged versions of the fund are effectively trader bait,” Ben Johnson, Morningstar’s director of global ETF research, told Blockworks.</blockquote>



Toroso’s planned offering is actively managed and will invest at least 80% of its net assets in shares of the Amplify ETF and swap agreements that provide daily leveraged exposure to it.&nbsp;



Because of daily rebalancing and the compounding of each day’s return over time, the fund’s return for periods longer than a day will be the result of each day’s returns compounded over the period. This will likely differ from 200% of the return of the Amplify ETF over the same period, according to the preliminary prospectus.



“The fund will lose money if the Amplify ETF’s performance is flat over time,” the document notes. “As a result of daily rebalancing, the Amplify ETF’s volatility and the effects of compounding, it is even possible that the fund will lose money over time while the Amplify ETF&#8217;s performance increases over a period longer than a single day.”



Toroso is also seeking to bring to market the Elevate Shares Inverse Daily Blockchain ETF (KOLB), which would seek daily results corresponding to the opposite of the performance of BLOK.



KOLB would invest in swap agreements and short positions on the Amplify ETF that provide inverse or short exposure to the value of BLOK equal to at least 80% of the fund’s assets, the filing notes. Its returns for periods longer than a single day will likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from -100% of the return of the Amplify ETF in the same span.



“Given the volatility of blockchain-themed investments and the ongoing absence of a direct bitcoin ETF, such leveraged and inverse products could garner attention,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA.



Toroso Investments could not immediately be reached for comment.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">More blockchain, crypto ETFs in registration</h3>



The filings are the latest crypto products not directly investing in digital assets put before the SEC as fund issuers seek to satisfy investor demand amid regulatory hurdles.



VanEck, which has filed for a physically backed bitcoin ETF, launched its Digital Transformation ETF (DAPP) in April and Bitwise Asset Management brought to market its Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (BITQ) the following month.&nbsp;



Invesco, a fund group with more than $1.5 trillion assets under management, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/invesco-proposes-crypto-economy-etf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proposed a Crypto Economy ETF</a> in June and recently <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/invesco-and-galaxy-team-to-build-suite-of-crypto-etfs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">partnered with Galaxy Digital </a>to ultimately create a suite of physically backed digital assets ETFs.



Looking to add a crypto product alongside BLOK, Amplify <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/amplify-files-for-defi-focused-etf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed plans last week</a> to launch a Decentralized Finance &amp; Crypto Exposure ETF. The offering would invest at least 40% of its net assets in equity securities issued by companies in the DeFi marketplace and 40% in investment instruments that have a high correlation with the price of cryptocurrencies.



The timeline for a dozen or so proposed spot bitcoin ETFs remains uncertain as SEC Chairman Gary Gensler <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sec-chair-gensler-prioritizes-crypto-platform-crackdown/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has said</a> the agency could instead favor ETFs limited to bitcoin futures contracts.



Meanwhile other countries, such as Canada, continue to roll out products that directly invest in cryptocurrencies. 



Evolve Funds Group, which brought to market a bitcoin ETF in February, <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/evolve-announces-bitcoin-etf-begins-trading-on-tsx-870095552.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">was set to launch</a> the country’s first multi-cryptocurrency ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Toroso Investments Proposes Leveraged, Inverse ETFs Based on BLOK

<div id="highlights-block_614b5115fdac5" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Planned offering, with ticker symbol DEFI, will invest in companies involved in decentralized finance, as well as bitcoin futures contracts, GBTC and Canadian bitcoin ETFs</li>
 <li>Fund could have “fairly significant overlap” in holdings with other blockchain ETFs on the market, president of The ETF Store says</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Amplify ETFs is looking to launch an actively managed fund that will invest in companies involved in decentralized finance, or DeFi, as well as cryptocurrency development, utilization and investment.



The Amplify Decentralized Finance &amp; Crypto Exposure ETF will seek to invest at least 40% of its net assets in equity securities issued by companies in the Defi marketplace and 40% in investment instruments that have a high correlation with the price of cryptocurrencies, the firm revealed in <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1633061/000121390021049135/s133556_485apos.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a regulatory filing</a> on Tuesday evening.



It will invest in DeFi blockchain miners, integrators that connect traditional finance to DeFi, companies that develop and distribute applications and software services, including smart contracts and pre-revenue DeFi companies, the filing notes. It will also look to hold companies with more than half of their net assets accounted for by direct holdings of bitcoin, ether, or other liquid crypto assets.



The fund also plans to invest in bitcoin futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), as well as pooled investment vehicles in the US and abroad. The fund initially expects to directly invest up to 15% of its total assets in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Canadian bitcoin ETFs.



The proposed product will be sub-advised by Toroso Investments and its ticker will be DEFI. The document did not indicate an expense ratio for the planned offering.&nbsp;



A spokesperson for Amplify declined to comment beyond the filing.



“This is yet another iteration of ETFs attempting to offer some semblance of crypto exposure with the SEC failing to approve bitcoin ETFs,” Nathan Geraci, president of <a href="https://etfstore.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The ETF Store</a>, told Blockworks. “I would expect fairly significant overlap in holdings with other blockchain ETFs on the market.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Illinois-based fund group already offers the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK), which is the largest blockchain ETF in the US with nearly $1.3 billion assets under management.



“The universe of publicly-traded companies touching DeFi is limited at this point,” Geraci said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“That said, there’s no question the DeFi space will continue evolving and Amplify will have a head start on the competition by being a first-mover with a perfect ticker symbol.”</blockquote>



Unlike the new proposed offering, BLOK holds almost entirely stocks, and has a broader mandate than the planned DEFI ETF, targeting all sorts of blockchain companies. Its top holdings include Hut 8 Mining, MicroStrategy, Square, PayPal and Marathon Digital, <a href="https://www.etf.com/BLOK" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to ETF.com</a>.&nbsp;



BLOK <a href="https://www.etf.com/BLOK#overview" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has returned</a> about 94% in the trailing year, despite seeing returns of about -2.5% in the past month. New ETF registrations typically take 45 days for the SEC to approve or comment, but the review period can be extended at the agency&#8217;s discretion.