Amid the growing convergence between traditional and digital finance, Valour, the UK subsidiary of DeFi Technologies, a digital asset firm, has scored a license to provide crypto ETPs. With the regulatory approval, the digital asset issuer can offer exchange-traded products to retail investors on the London Stock Exchange.
For readers new to the industry, crypto ETPs are a broad term for financial products that track the price of a cryptocurrency on public stock exchanges. The ETP provider, for instance, Valour, buys and stores the actual crypto, and users can buy shares of the product rather than the whole crypto itself.
Yield-bearing ETPS stand out in Valour’s offering
Valour is not just offering crypto ETPs. They are focusing on delivering yield-bearing crypto ETPs, which means products that offer an income through staking, lending, or liquidity provisions. Now, everyday investors (individuals) in the UK can buy shares of crypto products from Valour.
However, here is one important point to note. As of now, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approved Valour to offer two new crypto products — “1Valour Bitcoin Physical Staking and 1Valour Ethereum Physical Staking”, meaning users can buy shares of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In other words, the company will hold and stake Bitcoin and Ethereum on behalf of the retail investors. From this, investors can get both price exposure and staking rewards.
According to a crypto enthusiast, Valour’s crypto ETP initiative for retail investors is a positive story for Core DAO. His words further stated: “Exposure through regulated ETPs increases visibility, credibility, and access to new capital beyond crypto-native users. Strong step toward mainstream adoption”.
To provide more context, in 2024, Valour and DeFi Technologies have already tied up with Core Foundation, the firm behind the Core decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), to offer yield-bearing “innovative Bitcoin ETPs.
Key players in the Crypto ETP industry
When looking at the latest crypto exchange-traded products, VanEck, an investment management firm, launched the Avalanche exchange-traded fund (ETF). This is considered the first US-listed yield-bearing ETP that provides both price exposure and staking rewards centered on AVAX, Avalanche’s native token for retail investors.
To make it even clearer, no firms in the US have so far launched crypto ETPs focused on providing yield or income to retail investors. Their key focus area has been on providing price exposure to investors, specifically institutions and firms.
In Europe, Valour has now become one of the first firms to offer yield-bearing crypto ETPs on a regulated stock exchange.
21Shares’ Ethereum staking ETP, Grayscale’s Ethereum trust ETF, and CoinShares’ Ethereum and multi-asset staking ETP are some of the prominent ETP providers in the world.
