Bitwise Asset Management: crypto funds and ETPs from San Francisco and Frankfurt
Bitwise Asset Management is a crypto asset manager founded in 2017, based in San Francisco with offices in New York and London. It calls itself "America's largest crypto index fund manager" and says that thousands of financial advisors, family offices and institutional investors use its products, as its European newsroom puts it. In Europe, its exchange-traded products are issued by Bitwise Europe GmbH in Frankfurt.
Bitwise Asset Management is listed among the event and network partners of Finance Loop.
Bitwise Europe in Frankfurt
Bitwise came to Europe by buying ETC Group, a London-based issuer of crypto ETPs with more than one billion US dollars under management, as Bitwise announced. The deal added nine European-listed crypto ETPs to the Bitwise range. The issuer of these products is Bitwise Europe GmbH, Thurn-und-Taxis-Platz 6 in Frankfurt, registered at the Frankfurt commercial register under HRB 116604.
The best-known product is the Bitwise Physical Bitcoin ETP with the ticker BTCE, which Bitwise calls the largest and most heavily traded physical bitcoin ETP in Europe. The range also has ETPs on Ethereum with staking (ET32), Solana (ESOL) and XRP (GXRP), and a basket product that tracks the MSCI Digital Assets Select 20 index (DA20). According to Bitwise, every product is fully backed by the underlying tokens, which sit in cold storage with a custodian.
How a crypto ETP works in Europe
A crypto ETP lets an investor hold bitcoin or ether through a normal securities account. In Europe these products are notes issued by the provider, because crypto is not an eligible asset for UCITS funds, so they are ETPs and not ETFs. A physically backed ETP holds the coins it tracks, and each note is a claim on that pool. The investor does not control the private keys and pays an annual fee; in return the product settles through the same custody chain as a share. Details are on crypto ETP and in the answer What is a bitcoin ETF?
For a bank or asset manager, an ETP is often the first step into the asset class, before it builds its own crypto custody. How institutions approach bitcoin is also the subject of bitcoin for asset managers and institutional crypto.
Bitwise Asset Management and Finance Loop
Bitwise Asset Management is one of the event and network partners of Finance Loop and is named among them in the review of Finance Loop's first year. Crypto ETPs were on stage at Finance Loop events in Frankfurt before, on panels about digital assets. Investors who want to understand bitcoin before they choose a product can take the Finance Loop masterclass Bitcoin for Investors, held in German, which covers ETPs and custody models.
What is Bitwise Asset Management?
Bitwise Asset Management is an asset manager that builds investment products on crypto assets: index funds, ETPs, hedge fund solutions and separately managed accounts. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in San Francisco. Its European business, Bitwise Europe, grew out of the ETC Group purchase.
What is the Bitwise Physical Bitcoin ETP?
The Bitwise Physical Bitcoin ETP (BTCE) is an exchange-traded note that tracks the price of bitcoin and is backed by bitcoin held in cold storage. Bitwise Europe GmbH in Frankfurt issues it. It trades on exchanges like a share, so a buyer needs a securities account and not an account at a crypto exchange.
Is Bitwise based in Germany?
The parent company, Bitwise Asset Management, is based in San Francisco. Its European issuer, Bitwise Europe GmbH, is a German company with its seat in Frankfurt, where Deutsche Börse runs Xetra, one of the main listing venues for crypto ETPs in Europe. More on the city's crypto scene is on crypto in Frankfurt.
Bitwise Asset Management and Finance Loop
Bitwise Asset Management is listed among the event and network partners of Finance Loop. Crypto ETPs and bitcoin in asset management belong to the track Investment & Digital Assets.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, and Risk & Compliance.