21Shares shut 6 crypto ETPs as bear market bites
21Shares, the issuer of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products, is set to close six encrypted exchange-traded products (ETPs), all of which have been open for less than a year.
Citing low investor demand, the Switzerland-based issuer is shuttering Crypto Layer 1 ETP (LAY1), DeFi 10 Infrastructure ETP(DEFII), S&P Risk Controlled Bitcoin Index ETP (SPBTC), S&P Risk Controlled Ethereum Index ETP (SPETH), USD Yield ETP (USDY) and Terra Classic ETP (LUNA).
The firm issued mandatory redemption notices on the relevant product pages, exercising its right to terminate the products after 90 consecutive days of trading with less than $100 million assets under management (AUM).
In a shareholder notice, the firm said the six ETPs collectively have less than $700,000 in assets under management. According to 21Shares, the company added $26.95 million in assets during January compared to the $26.73 million in the same period last year.
“It is a routine/standard practice in the ETP industry. While these ETPs saw relatively low demand, we’re seeing continuous strong demand in our other products. In fact, we closed out our second-strongest January in company history this year,” a company spokesperson told CoinDesk.
The move by 21Shares, which launched the world’s first crypto ETP in 2018, comes as the crypto winter has deterred asset managers from launching vehicles for their clients to get access to digital assets.
21Shares, once had more than $3 billion in assets under management (AUM), has been trying to structure a product that looked, from an institutional point of view, as close as possible to a traditional ETF. A year ago, the firm’s offering boasted 26 cryptocurrency ETPs including the world’s only ETPs tracking Binance, 4 Crypto Index Baskets. Two of them are designed for investors who want to earn staking rewards (Tezos and Solana).
The crypto ETP issuer, which previously filed for a spot bitcoin ETF in the United States, taps UK infrastructure provider Copper for its custody and staking requirements. Its products are listed on 10 regulated European and Swiss trading exchanges.
