CoinShares has acquired the ETF index business of Elwood Technologies, meaning it will own the intellectual property of its blockchain index and ‘several’ products under development with Invesco.
Through its indexing business, Elwood and Invesco partnered to launch the Invesco Elwood Global Blockchain UCITS ETF (BCHN), which has amassed more than $1.1bn assets under management (AUM) since launch in 2019.
The acquisition will go ahead via a sales and purchase agreement (SPA), whereby CoinShares will take ownership of the entire issued share capital of Elwood Asset Management Services for a consideration of $17m.
The buy-up will not only see CoinShares take on Elwood’s indexing activities but also its equity research team, focusing on companies in the digital assets space.
Coinshares said it will continue to publish research on cryptocurrency and blockchain-related equities and investors can expect no impact to either the existing Elwood index or BCHN itself.
The firm added the acquisition – and partnership with Invesco – represent another step in bringing together crypto assets and traditional asset management.
Jean-Marie Mognetti, CEO of CoinShares, commented: “As the popularity of thematic ETFs continues to grow, we have seen notable performance dispersion between strategies targeting similar exposures.
“With investors seeking exposure to cryptocurrencies as well as equities benefiting from blockchain technology, the Elwood Index and Invesco are natural partners for CoinShares.”
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Gary Buxton, head of EMEA ETFs at Invesco, added: “We believe that blockchain technology and crypto assets will continue to evolve and play an increasingly significant, mainstream role across business, finance and society.”
The acquisition follows the rollout of CoinShares’ physically-replicated crypto ETPs in the first half of 2021 including the CoinShares Physical Bitcoin ETP (BITC), CoinShares Physical Ethereum ETP (ETHE) and CoinShares Physical XRP (XRPL).
