Digital asset ETP specialist 21Shares has introduced two new ETPs providing exposure to AVAX and ALGO, the native tokens underpinning the Avalanche and Algorand blockchains.
Hany Rashwan, co-founder and CEO of 21Shares.
The 21Shares Avalanche ETP (USD: AVAX SW; EUR: AVAXEUR SW; CHF: AVAXCHF SW) and 21Shares Algorand ETP (USD: ALGO SW; EUR: ALGOEUR SW; CHF: ALGOCHF SW) have been listed on SIX Swiss Exchange.
The ETPs offer institutional investors easy access to AVAX and ALGO through liquid, regulated vehicles without the technical challenges of setting up private keys or crypto wallets.
They use full direct, so-called ‘physical’ replication with each share of the ETPs being 100% collateralized by a corresponding investment in AVAX or ALGO.
The ETPs’ underlying digital asset holdings are stored using institutional-grade cold storage custody solutions provided by Coinbase and Copper.
Each ETP comes with an expense ratio of 2.50%.
Avalanche
Avalanche is an open-source platform for decentralized finance applications and enterprise blockchain deployments, making it a direct rival to Ethereum, the most popular blockchain for the deployment of smart contracts.
The Avalanche network comprises multiple blockchains and employs a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that achieves a high throughput of up to 6,500 transactions per second without compromising scalability.
Each chain in the Avalanche architecture represents its own virtual machine and allows for case-specific functionality.
The network’s name reflects its consensus protocol which consists of four mechanisms (Slush, Snowflake, Snowball, and Avalanche) that build upon each other and become more secure in the process.
With a total market capitalization of $29 billion, AVAX is currently ranked as the eleventh-largest cryptocurrency globally.
Algorand
Algorand, meanwhile, is a Layer 1 blockchain solution that supports the creation of decentralized applications.
Algorand was founded by Silvio Micali, an MIT Professor and recipient of the Turing Award in computer science which is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of computing.
With Algorand, Micali has developed a novel ‘pure’ proof-of-stake consensus mechanism which he argues helps to solve one of the most persistent problems facing cryptocurrencies: scalability.
With a total market capitalization of $10.8bn, ALGO is currently ranked as the twenty-first-largest cryptocurrency globally.
The two new listings bring the total number of products within 21Shares’ crypto ETP suite to 20. The firm’s line-up includes 14 single crypto ETPs, five multi-crypto ETPs, and a short bitcoin product.
Hany Rashwan, co-founder and CEO of 21Shares, said: “Adding Avalanche and Algorand to our already expansive suite of single-asset ETPs delivers additional simple and easy options for investors to enter the crypto asset class and allows us to continue fulfilling our mission to build the simplest and most transparent way to access this asset class.”