Bitwise Enters Europe, Now Managing Over $4.5 billion in Crypto

Crypto fund manager Bitwise is entering a new continent for the first time with the acquisition of London-based ETC Group, the company announced Monday.

ETC Group’s nine European-listed, physically-backed crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs), which include offerings centered around Bitcoin, Ethereum staking, Solana and XRP, will soon be rebranded to carry the Bitwise name.

With this deal, over $1 billion in assets under ETC Group’s management will come under the Bitwise umbrella, increasing the company’s total asset base to approximately $4.5 billion. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said:

This acquisition allows us to serve European investors, offer global expertise to our clients and expand our product suite with innovative ETPs.

San Francisco-based Bitwise was among the pioneers that introduced the first spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US in January. It recently launched a spot ETF product for Etherium in the U.S. market, joining other issuers that did so last month.

Bitwise has managed to outperform many smaller crypto-focused fund managers in terms of net inflows for these funds. Their Bitwise BTC ETF (BITB) ranks fourth in net inflows, trailing only BlackRock, Fidelity and the product of Ark Invest and 21Shares. Meanwhile, the Bitwise ETH ETF (BITW) is only outperformed by BlackRock and Fidelity.

At the time of writing, the company’s Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs hold asset bases of about $2.3 billion and $240 million, respectively.

This deal is part of a broader trend of consolidation in the crypto fund industry. Europe-focused CoinShares recently completed the acquisition of Valkyrie’s funds business, a move aimed at establishing a stronger presence in the US. Through that deal, CoinShares acquired about $530 million in assets under management across four funds, after Valkyrie launched its spot Bitcoin ETF on Nasdaq two months earlier.