Tag: Valkyrie

Valkyrie’s Two Crypto-focused Trusts Raise $73.6m

by Blockchain News

Two crypto-focused trusts owned by digital asset manager Valkyrie have raised $73.6 million.

One cryptocurrency trust, the Valkyrie Tron Trust, launched last year to offer accredited investors access to the TRX cryptocurrency.

According to an amended filing with the SEC, the fund has secured a $50 million investment fund from investors.

Another cryptocurrency trust is a new trust launched in May, Valkyrie Avalanche Trust, dedicated to providing investors with separate exposure to the Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain and the underlying cryptocurrency.

The report shows the trust has now raised nearly $24 million, slightly less than the $25 million Valkyrie said in May had raised for the then-newly announced trust.

Valkyrie spokesperson comments on the two cryptocurrencies trust fund that:

“Tron has gained significant traction because the Tron network continues to see continued transaction growth, including for stablecoins, and investors familiar with the Asia-Pacific region have started taking notice. Avalanche is also seeing increased adoption at a substantial rate, including earlier this week when KKR announced a deal with Securitize to tokenize a piece of a private equity fund on the Avalanche blockchain.”

Valkyrie Digital Assets was one of the first asset managers to launch a Bitcoin futures ETF in the U.S. with a very robust underlying trust portfolio.

These include, but are not limited to, the Valkyrie Bitcoin Trust, the Valkyrie Algorand Trust, the Valkyrie Polkadot Trust, the Valkyrie Dash Trust, and the Valkyrie TRON Trust. In addition to launching these funds based on the innovation embodied in cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchains, they also float based on popular demand.

Valkyrie is knowns as an experienced Index manager whose Bitcoin futures ETF was approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year.

In July, crypto asset manager Valkyrie launched a new financial investment product. The Tennessee-based company has announced that it is entering the venture capital arena with plans to raise a $30 million fund by investing in early-stage startups in Israel.

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Valkyrie Establishes $30m Venture Fund, Investing in Crypto & Web3 Projects

by Blockchain News

Crypto asset management firm Valkyrie is launching a new financial investment product. The Tennessee-based company announced on Tuesday that it is moving into venture capital with plans to raise a $30 million fund by investing in early-stage startups in Israel.

In April, the firm hired Lluis Pedragosa, a renowned venture capital expert, to lead Valkyrie Ventures. Pedragosa is a veteran of Israel’s VC scene who is the founder and former partner of cybersecurity-oriented Israeli VC Team8, which focuses on enterprise technologies, artificial intelligence, and fintech.

Valkyrie will geographically focus on startups in Israel and the US, with plans to invest in startups seeking to bridge the gap to web3 for average users.

Filling in the gap between the ordinary web2 user experience and connection to web3 assets is the path to the next billion users of blockchain, Pedragosa said.

Besides efforts to back firms developing web3 user experience, Valkyrie Ventures fund also plans to invest $250,000 to $1 million in behind-the-scenes infrastructure firms building secure blockchain infrastructure and building crypto products.

Pedragosa said Valkyrie has already invested in a Web3 startup, “Bunches, ” which is developing a messaging platform for wallets.

The company added that Valkyrie will provide Israeli startups access to the U.S. market. Valkyrie is a Tennessee-based firm with a largely U.S.-based network of contacts and clients that will help “bridge the gap” for Israeli startups, Pedragosa explained.

The Valkyrie fund seeks to raise somewhere between $30 million and $50 million. The announcement comes amid a significant downturn in the industry. The current market turbulence has prompted several firms to slash their valuations, declare bankruptcy or even close shops. Pedragosa said that is not a huge concern. He said market bears have historically been a time for building in the industry.

Crypto Venture Capital Funding Surging

Valkyrie’s announcement comes at a time when several firms continue to splash capital into crypto venture funds.

Last year, venture capitalists bet big on crypto startups, investing more than $27 billion worldwide as of late November, more than in the past 10 years combined.

Many of the investments were facilitated by the venture capital arms of crypto firms, businesses whose continued growth depends on the expansion of the ecosystem.

Likewise, Coinbase and other crypto firms envision that blockchain technology will lead to the evolution of the internet and how the world moves from Web 2.0 to Web5.

The dominance of big tech over internet use and its control over personal data has led to calls for the net’s decentralization. The third iteration of the internet – Web3 – will be defined by open-source technology, using blockchain technology to be permissionless and trustless.

In January, FTX crypto exchange launched a $2 billion venture fund, one of the largest investment vehicles to date, aiming to tap into the crypto market’s startups.

Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of the Coinbase crypto exchange, is backing firms building infrastructures like blockchain network services, and crypto financial services, including metaverse, where users buy and sell digital goods for their virtual lives like NFTs.

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Valkyrie Bitcoin Mining ETF to List on Nasdaq

by Blockchain News

An exchange-traded fund focused on Bitcoin mining from the American asset and index fund manager Valkyrie will list on the Nasdaq on February 8 under the ticker symbol “WGMI.”

WGMI is short for “WAGMI,” referring to crypto nomenclature for “we’re all gonna make it.” WGMI will begin trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq.

According to Blockworks, the latest launch of ETF would be concentrated on Bitcoin mining operators with an emphasis on sustainability. It invests in publicly traded miners operating renewable energy as their major energy source and carries an expense ratio of 75 basis points. 

Approximately 77% of the energy consumed by the companies in the ETF, is from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal. Most are US-based businesses, despite some firms are Canada and the UK-based.

As reported by blockchain.News on Jan 27, the American asset and index fund manager Valkyrie has filed an application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list a Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) product that will track the shares of companies directly invested in Bitcoin mining.

Valkyrie is knowns as an experienced Index manager whose Bitcoin futures ETF has been approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year. CEO Leah Wald said the fund will invest 80% or more of its net worth in companies that make at least half of their profits from bitcoin mining and related activities.

Although the SEC has approved the listing of Bitcoin ETFs tied to the futures market, it is yet to approve funds that provide direct exposure to the underlying asset itself. In November of last year, The US SEC has once again delayed approving a proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) backed by physical Bitcoin applied by Valkyrie Investments Inc. Since November, six applications for bitcoin ETFs have been rejected by the SEC, including applications from VanEck, WisdomTree and SkyBridge Capital.

Since the first Bitcoin futures ETF- ProShares– has been listed on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) last year, the market expects the financial regulator to open green light for more Bitcoin futures ETF products available in the market, even Bitcoin direct-related ETFs for trading.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is asking for public comment on whether ETF directly tied to the price of bitcoin could be a fraudulent vehicle, according to Bloomberg reported on Feb. 7.

Yet, the authority also expressed fiduciary concerns in exchange for holding the token. Concerns, especially for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (ticker GBTC), currently the largest bitcoin holding.

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Valkyrie Bitcoin Mining ETF “WGMI” Approved For Nasdaq Listing

by NEWSBTC

Crypto asset management firm Valkyrie will have a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) listed on the Nasdaq this week. The stock exchange will be listing Valkyrie’s new ‘Bitcoin Mining ETF,’ an investment vehicle that will supply assets that provide exposure to company securities “deriving at least 50% of their revenue or profits” from Bitcoin or crypto mining, or hardware and software related to crypto mining.

Valkyrie… Going To Make It?

Spot Bitcoin and crypto ETFs are yet to hit the market in the U.S., hampered by the SEC’s timid approach on accepting such ETFs. However, in recent months, the SEC has finally become warm to the idea of future’s ETFs, starting with the ProShares ETF and VanEck Bitcoin ETF. Last October was indeed a monumental month for publicly-traded markets and crypto, with Valkyrie joining the likes of ProShares, Invesco, and several other investment firms that sought out crypto-focused ETF offerings.

Valkyrie’s latest ETF, ‘WGMI’ (an homage to famed crypto phrase, “we’re gonna make it”), will start trading at the opening bell for the Nasdaq beginning tomorrow, Tuesday February 8th. Valkyrie has established that 80% of portfolio holdings in the ETF will reflect securities of firms that are generating a majority of their revenue or profit from crypto mining, or from hardware and/or software related to crypto mining. The remaining 20% of the ETF’s net assets will be allocated towards firms that hold “a significant portion of their net assets” in Bitcoin and crypto. The ETF will carry a 0.75% expense ratio.

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Related Reading | Bitcoin On Track To $50K, Why BTC Whales May Blaze The Trail

Bitcoin has been showing strong signs of righting the ship after a tough start to the new year. Will Valkyrie's latest ETF, and other publicly-traded securities help bolster adoption? | Source: BTC-USD on TradingView.com

What We Can Expect

WGMI is the third in line for Valkyrie’s now-accepted ETFs, following behind the firm’s broad Bitcoin futures ETF and “Balance Sheet Opportunities ETF,” which holds firms that “directly or indirectly invest in, transact in, or otherwise have exposure to bitcoin.”

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While we know that this new Valkyrie ETF won’t possess direct crypto holdings, expect some of the biggest mining names to make the cut, such as Hive, Bitfarms, Marathon and more. With the 20% allocated towards firms with substantial net assets in Bitcoin, we could also see the likes of MicroStrategy and other major players make the WGMI holdings. Additionally, the fund has noted that the firm’s holdings use about 77% renewable energy, double the average of common publicly-traded companies.

Related Reading | The Bear Signal That Suggests Another Bitcoin Crash Is Coming

Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com
The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.

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Interest wanes in Bitcoin futures ETF’s as contracts fall below 5K

by Cointelegraph

After a stellar launch, interest has waned in the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy Exchange Traded Fund (BITO) which now has the lowest amount of CME contracts since Nov. 2021.

The Bitcoin futures exchange traded fund (ETF) holds a total of 4,904 Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures contracts, according to the fund’s latest update from Jan. 11. A Bitcoin futures ETF allows investors to speculate on the future price of Bitcoin (BTC) without having to hold the asset themselves.

BITO’s assets under management (AUM) figure has retraced to $1.16 billion from a high of $1.4 billion last Nov. This is about the same amount it held two days after its Oct. 18 launch when it became the fastest fund to reach $1 billion in AUM ever.

Arcane Research discussed possible reasons for the BITO retrace in its latest Weekly Update. As you might expect, the poor price performance of BTC over the past two months is the chief explanation, as Bitcoins drifts ever further from the $69,000 it reached on Nov. 10 down to its current price around $43,700.

Arcane suggests another explanation for the declining interest in BITO is the high cost that comes with operating a futures-based ETF, with the rolling costs required each month to stay ahead of the current BTC price driving up costs:

“BITO sells its front-month exposure to buy the next-month contract each time the contract approaches expiry.”

Arcane believes that a spot-based BTC ETF would not be subject to the same high fees that grow over time. The SEC has not yet approved any such ETFs, but a ruling on the filing by Fidelity Investments is scheduled to be made by Jan. 20.

Other BTC futures ETFs have also failed to significantly increase their AUMs, which are a fraction of the assets of BITO. Valkyrie’s Bitcoin futures ETF (BTFD), which launched just days after BITO, currently holds $71.9 million.

Related: Bitcoin holdings of public companies surged in 2021

Although the VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF (XBTF) has increased its AUM by $6 million since its Nov. 16 launch, it currently holds just $15.8 million according to Dividend.com.