CoinShares, a St. Helier, Jersey-based digital-asset investment house with over US$4 billion under management, is launching a physically backed, exchange-traded Ethereum product.

• CoinShares Physical Ethereum is the second ETP to be released on the firm’s institutional-grade ETP platform following the launch of its CoinShares Physical Bitcoin (Ticker: BITC) product in January. It will be listed under the ticker ETHE on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a base fee of 1.25 per cent. Komainu will serve as custodian.
• “Bringing innovative products like ETHE allows us to continue setting the industry standard for trust and transparency and provide institutions with easy access to industry-leading crypto investment vehicles,” said Townsend Lansing, head of product at CoinShares.
• The move follows the launch of the first North American Bitcoin exchange traded funds in Canada this month by Purpose Investments Inc. and Evolve Funds Group Inc. Both are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
• ETHE, which is launching with approximately US$75 million in assets under management, will be physically backed, meaning it will hold the underlying assets it is designed to track. Each unit of the product will be backed with 0.03 Ether, the company said.