In a strategic move to expand its presence in Europe and the broader crypto industry, asset management and exchange-traded fund (ETF) firm Bitwise Investment has struck a deal to acquire ETC Group, a major Cryptocurrency source Headquartered in London.
Bitwise Doubles Down on Institutional Bitcoin Efforts
While the specific terms of the deal remain undisclosed, Bitwise announced Monday that upon completion of the transaction, the San Francisco-based firm will be tasked with managing a significant $4.5 billion in assets.
Founded in 2019, ETC Group has established itself as a leader in the European crypto ETP space, According to To Bloomberg, it offers a range of physically backed funds that track popular digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP. Its flagship product, a $700 million Bitcoin exchange-traded product, is the largest on the continent.
It is worth noting that all of the offerings provided by the ETC Group are backed by physical assets, with plans to rebrand these products under the Bitwise logo in the future.
In January of this year, Bitwise introduced the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States, the Bitwise Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (BITB), after receiving SEC approval, and it quickly raised over $2 billion. Assets under management (Ohm).
Last month, Bitwise also launched its first Ethereum ETP product, the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW), which attracted over $300 million in assets within weeks of its debut.
CEO Optimistic About Expanding Crypto Expertise to Europe
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley expressed his excitement about the acquisition, highlighting the opportunity to meet the needs of European investors, provide global insights to clients, and diversify Product range With “Innovative Exchange Traded Investment Products”.
Speaking about Bitwise’s six-year journey as a respected asset manager in the crypto markets, Horsley emphasized the company’s commitment to providing expertise and value to European investors, institutions and advisors. Horsley added:
We are proud of the reputation we have built over the past six years with advisors, institutions and investors as a sophisticated asset manager in the cryptocurrency markets, and we look forward to bringing this expertise to European investors.
At the time of writing, the largest cryptocurrency in the market, Bitcoin, is trading at $58,200, having failed to reclaim the key $60,000 level over the weekend due to a lack of bullish catalysts sweeping the market.
Bitcoin price has dropped more than 2% in the past 24 hours but found support last week at $56,000, which will be crucial for bullish investors to hold in case a deeper decline is prevented. rebound In the coming days, Bitcoin is set to once again test its seven-month low of $49,000, which it reached on August 5.
On the other hand, Ethereum saw a deeper decline compared to Sunday’s price, trading at $2,570 and recording a loss of 3.4% during the same time frame.
Featured image by DALL-E, chart by TradingView.com