- CoinShares expands footprint into equities market with acquisition of the ETF index business from Elwood Technologies
- The Invesco Elwood Global Blockchain Equity UCITS ETF has over $1B in assets under management
- CoinShares also adds equity research unit and coverage of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related equities
CoinShares International Limited, Europe’s largest digital asset investment firm, has announced it has acquired the ETF index business from Elwood Technologies.
Through this platform, Elwood partnered with Invesco to launch the Invesco Elwood Global Blockchain Equity UCITS ETF, which provides exposure to internationally listed companies generating earnings from blockchain technology.
The Invesco Blockchain ETF has amassed over $1 billion in assets since its inception in 2019. In addition to index creation activity, Elwood built a best-in-class equity research team focused on companies in the digital assets space.
The equity research unit will join CoinShares and benefit from the scale provided by this organisation. There will be no changes to the Elwood Index and no impact to the Invesco Blockchain ETF. Furthermore, it will continue to publish research on cryptocurrency and blockchain-related equities.
CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said: “This acquisition marks another milestone for CoinShares as we execute on our strategic plan to generate shareholder value and become a global financial technology company. We look forward to welcoming Elwood’s index platform as the newest addition to the CoinShares team.”
The collaboration between CoinShares and Invesco will further bridge the gap between traditional asset management and cryptocurrencies whilst broadening both firms’ connectivity with global institutional investors and allocators. With $1,505 billion in assets under management as of May 31, 2021, Invesco is one of the world’s largest asset managers offering a comprehensive range of active, passive and alternative investment capabilities, and was the world’s first institutional asset manager to introduce a blockchain-focused thematic ETF via its partnership with Elwood in March 2019.
CoinShares reported £17.1 million in Q1 asset management revenues from its digital asset ETP business, and recently launched bitcoin and ethereum ETFs in collaboration with 3iQ, and made a strategic investment in a new ESG-focused investment management company in the United States, Viridi Funds.
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