SEC Receives Filing For Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF

Bitwise is looking to convert its index fund tracking the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap into an exchange-traded fund.

On Nov. 27, Bitwise’s filing was uploaded to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s website. The filing took the form of an application from the NYSE Arca, a major U.S. exchange specializing in exchange-traded products (ETPs), to list and trade shares of the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund as an ETP.

The Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund currently trades as a trust, offering weighted exposure to the ten-largest digital assets by market capitalization.

As of Oct. 31, Bitcoin accounts for the largest portion of the Index, representing 75.10% of the portfolio, followed by Ethereum with a 16.5% allocation, Solana with 4.30%, and XRP with 1.50%. Smaller allocations include Cardano at 0.70%, Avalanche at 0.60%, Chainlink and Bitcoin Cash at 0.40% each, and Polkadot and Uniswap at 0.30% each.

“The Trust does not seek to hold any digital assets other than Portfolio Assets and has expressly disclaimed ownership of any such assets,” the filing states. “The Trust’s only assets will be Portfolio Assets and cash.”

CF Benchmarks Ltd, a third-party valuation vendor, will calculate the net asset value of the fund’s assets at the close of every business day based on data from leading U.S.-based crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini. The trust's digital assets are held with Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC, a regulated custodian. Shares will be created and redeemed exclusively in cash.

Bitwise announced that NYSE Arca had submitted the 19b-4 filing to list the fund as an ETP on Nov. 15.

Bitwise looks to expand ETP offerings

The news comes as Bitwise is quickly moving to expand its roster of ETP products.

On Nov. 26, NYSE Arca also filed to list a spot exchange-traded fund from Bitwise offering exposure to Bitcoin and Ether. The move followed Bitwise acquiring Attestant, an Ethereum staking provider managing $4 billion in staked assets, on Nov. 13.

On Nov. 20, Bitwise also registered a statutory trust in Delaware for a proposed spot Solana ETF.

On Nov. 27, Bitwise rebranded its European XRP ETF to the Bitwise Physical XRP ETP (GRXP) and revealed that Ripple Labs will invest in its GXRP product.

Bitwise acquired ETC Group in August to expand its operations into Europe. The ETC Group manages over $1 billion in assets, including popular crypto ETPs tracking Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and an index fund tracking 20 digital assets.

Competition from 21Shares

21Shares, a crypto asset manager assets-under management (AUM) worth $10 billion, is also looking to expand its market share in the crypto ETP sector.

On Nov. 27, the firm announced four new ETPs targeting mid-cap digital assets targeting diverse segments of the crypto markets in Pyth, an oracles provider, Render, a decentralized compute provider, Ondo, a tokenization project, and Near an AI-focused Layer 1 network.

On Nov. 19, 21Shares introduced staking to its Ethereum ETP and rebranded the fund to Ethereum Core Staking ETP (ETHC).

21Shares also filed with the SEC for a spot XRP ETF on Nov. 1.