New financial products launch globally as crypto turns ‘hot’ again

On April 2nd the price of bitcoin jumped by 15 percent – signaling for many an end to the “crypto winter,” that has dominated the space since May last year. BTC continued to rally to a five-month high of $5,400 a week later and at the time of writing remains over $5000.

Now a host of new crypto financial products are launching, just in time to potentially benefit from the renewed interest in bitcoin and other cryptographic assets.

Crossgate Capital launches an equity share offer

Established in 2018, Crossgate Capital is a New Zealand registered company operated by a commercially experienced management and investment team with a singular purpose of investing in digital assets.

Overall Crossgate’s aim is to ease the path for investors with a desire to include crypto assets in their portfolios but who also want to avoid the risks and hassles associated with purchasing and securing the assets themselves.

Crossgate’s investment philosophy is to buy and hold actual crypto, based on fundamentals rather than sentiment – with trusted custodian Bitgo managing the cold storage. Although the specific cryptos being purchased are not identified in the company’s Product Disclosure Statement, Crossgate says only assets with a market cap of $500m or more will be included in the company’s holdings, and pricing data will be provided by BNC.

The offer opened in February and closes in 2024 with the value proposition for investors being directly related to any increase in value in the company’s holdings. The offer is open to all investors (not just accredited) and is for 97 million shares (with a minimum of 100 shares). The first shares allotted were on 1 April 2019 at NZ $1.00. The most recent share price (8 April 2019), based on the portfolio valuation is NZ $1.16. The share price is calculated after all fees and taxes

What’s unique about the offer is its structure as a share issue in a New Zealand registered company. Jurisdictionally New Zealand is recognised as among the most ethical and least corrupt in the world. Crossgate equity holders will thus have all the protections afforded to company shareholders under New Zealand’s Company Law Act, and the offer is also registered (offer number OFR12554) pursuant to New Zealand’s Financial Markets Conduct Act.

XBT Provider launches Litecoin and Ripple ETNs

Leading crypto asset exchange-traded notes manager, XBT Provider, announced the addition of two digital currency new trackers to its product suite. The XRP Tracker and the Litecoin Tracker are now publicly-tradable on the Boerse Stuttgart-owned Nordic Growth Market (NGM) and can be purchased by European investors in EUR or SEK.

CoinShares-owned XBT Provider has been offering a Bitcoin ETN since 2015 and launched an Ether Tracker in October 2017. The company believes that adding Litecoin and XRP to its offering is the next logical step as they are among the largest and most popular digital assets in the market today.

"Swedish and European investors have access to two new crypto assets (in EUR and SEK), Litecoin and XRP, on a regulated exchange. […] We believe these trackers are the right vehicle for the financial markets to obtain exposure to crypto assets through trusted brokers and XBT Provider’s track record only confirms its willingness to develop and expand its product range building on its already solid base," said Laurent Kssis MD of XBT Provider in a press release.

Both the LTC and the XRP ETN come with a 2.5 percent annual fund management fees and are open-ended.

Amun launches XRP ETP

On April 2, Swiss fintech firm, Amun AG, announced the launch of a new exchange-traded product that tracks the price of XRP, the Amun Ripple ETP, which trades on the Swiss exchange.

According to a company press release, the Amun Ripple ETP is a collateralized exchange-traded product denominated in USD with an annual fund management fee of 2.5 percent. The listing of the XRP tracker is the fourth ETP that Amun has launched in the past five months, after issuing a Bitcoin, Ether, and a crypto asset basket tracker.

“We started with a basket of leading cryptos in November last year and have now launched trackers on each of the three biggest cryptocurrencies individually. The Ripple ETP was one of the missing pieces of the puzzle, as we aim to facilitate access for investors in all major cryptocurrencies,” says Ophelia Snyder, Amun co-founder and Chief Product Officer.

Bank Frick launches BTC-ETH tracker for qualified investors

Another new crypto financial product that was launched this month is the new BTC-ETH Tracker from Liechtenstein’s crypto-friendly private bank Bank Frick and Swiss blockchain startup Bitcoin Suisse.

The BTC-ETH Tracker is an actively managed exchange-traded certificate that tracks the value of both bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) for a two-year term. According to its press release, the tracker is aimed exclusively at qualified investors and is available in both traditional security format and as an ERC-20 token.

“The product’s design demonstrates the innovative capacity that links Bank Frick and Bitcoin Suisse. With our certificate, professional market participants benefit from a future-oriented capital market solution,” said Raphael Haldner, Head of Funds and Capital Markets at Bank Frick.

Bank Frick is in charge of the issuance of the certificate while Bitcoin Suisse acts as the prime broker handling the buying and selling of BTC and ETH on exchanges.

Stefan Lütolf, Head of Trading & Brokerage at Bitcoin Suisse, stated: “With the active BTC-ETH tracker, we demonstrate our joint expertise and provide investors with a new form of capital market access.”

The launch of the BTC-ETH Tracker certificate is not Bank Frick’s first venture into cryptographic assets. The private bank offers a range of blockchain banking solutions including token sale advisory, crypto custody, and crypto trading services for intermediaries and professional counterparties, among other solutions.

New record trading volume for BTC futures

The strong demand for regulated, exchange-traded crypto-based financial products can be witnessed by the recent record week for bitcoin (BTC) futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

According to a tweet by the derivatives exchange, “CME Bitcoin futures had a record trading day on April 4, hitting an all-time high volume of over 22.5K contracts (112.7K equivalent bitcoin), surpassing the previous record of over 18.3K (64.3K equivalent bitcoin) on February 19.

With the end of the “crypto winter” and renewed demand for bitcoin – as witnessed by the recent boost in ‘bitcoin’ Google searches – we can expect to see the issuance of more regulated crypto-based financial products as established financial services firms seek to capitalize on investor demand for crypto assets.