Cryptocurrency fund issuer Valour has launched an exchange-traded product (ETP) for Near Protocol’s native token, NEAR, Valour parent company DeFi Technologies (CBOE CA: DEFI) announced on July 17.
The ETP will be traded on Sweden’s Spotlight stock exchange, allowing retail and institutional investors to gain exposure to the decentralized application development platform, the announcement said.
Elaine Buehler, Valour’s head of product, said the new fund offering will give investors access to assets known for their “transformational impact on DeFi and NFTs,” which stand for decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens.
Near Protocol is a technology stack designed to eliminate many of the challenges inherent in blockchain development, such as user onboarding and operating across multiple chains. The native NEAR (NEAR) token currently has a market cap of approximately $6.8 billion, making it one of the top 20 digital assets globally, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Web3 projects, including Burrow, a decentralized currency marketplace protocol, and Mintbase, an NFT platform, are built on Near Protocol’s technology stack.
The NEAR ETP will join Valour’s existing roster of alternative digital asset ETPs. Valour operates one of the largest Solana ETPs, Valor Solana, and offers a range of staking products, including ETPs for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and the Internet Computer (ICP).
On July 16, US regulators reportedly gave investment managers BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck the go-ahead to list the first exchange-traded ETH products in the US. Analysts say the imminent launch of an ETH ETF opens the floodgates for more cryptocurrency exchange-traded products in the US, including a potential Solana-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Related: Ether ETF, Solana ETF and Cryptocurrency Products Open the Floodgates – Analyst
Valour’s parent company, DeFi Technologies, manages approximately $600 million in assets across a variety of crypto-based strategies. On July 16, the company agreed to acquire trading desk Stillman Digital in an all-stock deal, a deal analysts say will turn the Canadian crypto platform into a “small version of Galaxy Digital.”
magazine: Could the Financial Crisis End the Crypto Bull Market?