Grayscale, a cryptocurrency investment firm, is expanding its operations by launching an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Europe. The company announced the launch of its first European ETF, Grayscale Future of Finance ETF UCITS, today, with plans to start trading tomorrow.
This new investment product will be listed on major European stock exchanges, including the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana. The ETF is listed under the ticker symbol “GFOF” and will be available for sale in Europe.
GFOF ET, a partnership with Bloomberg, tracks the performance of the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index. The index was jointly launched by Bloomberg and Grayscale in January 2022. It focuses on three major directions: technology, finance, and digital assets.
The announcement stated that the ETF will include companies involved in cryptocurrency mining, energy management, and other activities within the digital asset ecosystem. The official information on the fund states that the ETF tracks companies such as Robinhood, Block, Coinbase and Canaan, which are crypto-friendly trading apps.
Grayscale also worked with Europe’s white label issuer HANetf in the creation of the new investment product. The issuer is well-known for collaborating with companies such as ETC Group on blockchain ETFs.
Grayscale, one of the largest Bitcoin (BTC) investment companies in the world, manages the Grayscale Bitcoin BTC Trust with $18.3 million in assets. GBTC traded at a 31% discount in May amid massive market volatility.
The company has been pushing its BTC spot ETF aggressively, with CEO Michael Sonnenshein saying that Grayscale was preparing for a legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in case its ETF is denied. According to reports, the firm tried to convince the SEC that the largest BTC fund could be made into an ETF in order for investors to unlock $8 billion.
This news comes amid increasing use of crypto and industry-related ETFs around the world, with total assets in crypto ETFs reaching $16.3 billion in Q1-2022. 21Shares, Europe’s largest crypto ETF issuer, has recently added a Layer 1 and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) infrastructure exchange-traded product (ETPs) to its investment offerings.
