Asset management firm and Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuer Bitwise Investment has signed an agreement to acquire ETC Group, a leading London-based cryptocurrency issuer, as part of a strategic move to expand its presence in Europe and the cryptocurrency industry at large.
Bitwise to focus on institutional Bitcoin
Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Bitwise said on Monday that the San Francisco-based firm will be entrusted with managing assets worth $4.5 billion once the transaction closes.
According to Bloomberg, ETC Group was founded in 2019 and has established itself as a pioneer in the European crypto ETP space, offering a range of physically-backed funds tracking popular digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP. The firm's flagship product, a $700 million Bitcoin ETP, is the largest on the continent.
Notably, all products offered by ETC Group are backed by physical assets, and there are plans to rebrand these products under the Bitwise brand name in the future.
In January of this year, Bitwise received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to introduce the Bitwise Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (BITB), the first U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF, and its assets under management (AuM) quickly exceeded $2 billion.
Last month, Bitwise also launched its first spot Ethereum ETP, the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW), which attracted more than $300 million in assets within weeks of its debut.
CEO is open to expanding crypto expertise to Europe
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley expressed enthusiasm about the acquisition, highlighting the opportunity to serve the needs of European investors, provide global insights to clients and diversify its product offering with an “innovative ETP.”
Reflecting on Bitwise's six-year journey as a respected asset manager in the cryptocurrency market, Horsley confirmed the firm's focus on delivering expertise and value to European investors, institutions and advisors.
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 crypto asset market and look forward to bringing this expertise to European investors.
The daily chart shows sideways price movement with BTC below $60,000. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView.com
At the time of writing, Bitcoin, the market's largest cryptocurrency, was trading at $58,200 and failed to reclaim the crucial $60,000 level over the weekend due to a lack of bullish catalysts in the market.
BTC has fallen over 2% in the past 24 hours but found support at $56,000 last week, which will be important for bullish investors to hold on to in the coming days to prevent it from falling further and retesting the seven-month low of $49,000 hit on August 5th.
Meanwhile, Ethereum experienced a deeper retracement compared to Sunday's price, trading at $2,570, recording a 3.4% loss in the same period.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
