Bradley Duke, CEO of UK-based ETC Group, announced the launch of a new exchange-traded product (ETP) on Ether due to increased investor demand for ETH.
The head of the ETC Group said that there is growing interest among the company’s customers, so the goal of the new ETP is to provide them with more opportunities to interact with Ethereum. Thanks to the ETP, investors can access the tradable securities without the need to purchase them directly.
Last summer, the ETC Group launched a Bitcoin-pegged ETP on the German stock exchange Deutsche Börse. Now ETC Group has turned its attention to Ether, pinning high hopes on it and considering it the main competitor to Bitcoin. Duke called Ethereum “a holistic programmable banking system” for creating smart contracts and driving innovation.
Duke believes that despite the rivalry between Bitcoin and Ether, the structures of the two ETC Group exchange products are largely identical. Duke said both ETPs default to investor security, which is provided by the underlying asset. The ETC Group founder compared Bitcoin and Ether ETP to picks and shovels. It’s up to the investor to decide which is better to use, Duke said.
He also touched on the topic of regulation, in particular, the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ban on the sale of cryptocurrency derivatives to retail investors. Duke called this “bad news” for the UK. This position of the regulator suggests that the country is becoming closed to the digital asset industry, so the influence of London as one of the cryptocurrency centers in Europe will decrease over time. The FCA ban is due to the best intentions of the regulator, since by doing so it is trying to protect investors. However, the head of the ETC Group believes that the actions of the FCA will have a completely opposite effect. Retail investors will be forced to invest in unregulated markets.
Duke regretted the loss of UK retail investors, but noted that ETC Group’s products are certified throughout Europe. Considering that institutions are ready to invest in cryptocurrencies, and retail investors in the European Union can access ETC Group products, the loss of British retail investors turned out to be less painful for the company.
As a reminder, cryptoasset management firm CoinShares launched ETP on air on the SIX last month, also noting increased investor interest in the cryptoasset.
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