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Ark's BTC ETF Partner 21Shares Closing 6 Crypto Funds as Interest Wanes

Tim Fries

Published: March 17, 2023 10:20 pm

The digital asset trading company 21Shares is planning to close six of its cryptocurrency-related exchange-traded products. According to a report from Thursday, the decision was reached to waning interest in the ETPs which have total assets worth less than $700,000. Five of the six products are set to be delisted on April 6th.

21Shares Closing Multiple Crypto ETPs Due to Waning Interest

According to a report from Thursday, the digital asset trading company 21Shares is planning to delist several of its exchange-traded products due to waning interest. 21Shares S&P Risk Controlled Bitcoin Index ETP (PBTC), 21Shares S&P Risk Controlled Ethereum Index ETP (SPETH), 21Shares DeFi 10 Infrastructure ETP (DEFII), 21Shares Crypto Layer 1 ETP (LAY1), and 21Shares USD Yield ETP (USDY) are all set to be terminated on April 6th.

The sixth ETP set for delisting, the 21Shares Terra Classic ETP (LUNA) will remain live until June 12th. The total asset value of the six funds comes up to less than $700,000. Despite the delistings, 21Shares remains an active player in the digital asset industry. Last month, the company partnered up with CoinGecko to create a cryptocurrency classification system.

The firm is also well known as a key partner of Cathie Wood’s Ark in its effort to create a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The efforts to gain approval for such an ETF have so far met with failure multiple times, most recently in late January when the SEC stated that the companies failed to provide sufficient safeguards against manipulation and fraud.

Did the “Crypto Winter” Kill Digital Asset ETPs?

Throughout 2022, the digital asset industry faced multiple setbacks between the collapses of LUNA and FTX, bankruptcies caused by the ensuing contagions, and the overall deterioration of market conditions in the wake of record inflation. As a result of the hardships, multiple prominent cryptocurrency exchange-traded products have either been terminated or earmarked for delisting.

Last October, Valkyrie Funds announced the liquidation of its Bitcoin ETF. Less than a month later, in early November, Cosmos announced that Australia is set to lose its very first BTC exchange-traded fund. Furthermore, while the setbacks kept piling up, US regulators continued to refuse numerous applications for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

Despite the adverse developments, interest in cryptocurrency ETPs is far from gone. Grayscale recently had its first day in court pertaining to a lawsuit against the SEC for refusing to permit the conversion of the GBTC into an exchange-traded fund. Many observers noted that the hearing went in Grayscale’s favor as the presiding judges proved highly skeptical of the Commission’s arguments. Furthermore, despite the delisting, Valkyrie remains very much interested in the industry and even recently revealed its plans to take GBTC over.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist