San Francisco-based asset manager Bitwise has entered the European markets with the acquisition of crypto investment firm ETC Group. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed by the companies.
According to an Aug. 19 announcement, the London-based firm ETC Group has over $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) with a portfolio of products that includes a physical range of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs), including Bitcoin ETP (BTCE), Ethereum with staking (ET32), Solana (ESOL), XRP (GXRP) and the MSCI Digital Assets Select 20 (DA20).
In total, the acquisition adds nine European-listed crypto ETPs and raises Bitwise’s assets under management to above $4.5 billion.
“This acquisition allows us to serve European investors, to offer clients global insight, and to expand the product suite with innovative ETPs,” noted Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley in a statement.
ETC Group has been launching crypto ETPs since 2020, when it debuted its first products on the Deutsche Börse Xetra with regulatory approval from Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, or BaFin. The company is also behind a blockchain equity exchange-traded fund (ETF) that offers investors exposure to blockchain-based companies in Europe.
In the United States, Bitwise is one of the asset managers behind the recently approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs. In January, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission gave the green light to 11 asset manager applications, including Bitwise’s Bitcoin ETF (BITB). According to the fund’s webpage, it holds nearly $2.27 billion in net assets as of Aug. 19.
In July, the company also received approval from regulators to launch a spot Ether (ETH) ETP, the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW). According to Bitwise, the fund has gathered more than $300 million in assets in its first several weeks.
Crypto ETP adoption is expected to accelerate in the coming years, driven by institutional demand and a maturing regulatory environment for digital assets.
Horsley has previously described the adoption of Bitcoin ETFs by registered investment advisers and multifamily offices in the US as “stealthy but significant.” Over $51 billion in AUM has been accumulated across 11 Bitcoin ETFs since they were launched on Wall Street.
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