European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares is progressing with a potential acquisition of its United States competitor, Valkyrie Funds, which is also an issuer of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the country.
CoinShares on Jan. 12 confirmed the exercise of its strategic option to acquire Valkyrie, strengthening its efforts to enter the U.S. market.
A spokesperson for CoinShares declined to disclose the terms of the deal to Cointelegraph. The representative noted:
“CoinShares aims to be the leading global investment company specializing in digital assets. [...] It was only logical for us to expand into the U.S. and join the race for the spot Bitcoin ETF.”
According to an official statement by CoinShares, the firm decided to exercise this option as a direct result of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving Valkyrie's spot Bitcoin ETF alongside 10 other spot BTC ETFs. Called the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund, the Bitcoin ETF started trading on Jan. 11, 2024 on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol BRRR.
On its first day of trading, Valkyrie’s BRRR ETF traded around $9 million worth of shares, lagging behind giants like Grayscale that handled more than $2 billion in such trades in a single day, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund (BRRR) trading on Jan. 11, 2024. Source: Yahoo Finance
The acquisition is pending the completion of satisfactory due diligence, the finalization of necessary legal agreements, and final company board approval. The announcement reads that Valkyrie Funds is maintaining its operational independence until the acquisition is fully executed and finalized. CoinShares initially secured the option to acquire Valkyrie’s crypto unit in November 2023. The option is expected to remain active until March 31, 2024.
CoinShares’ progress in the potential acquisition of Valkyrie aligns with the positive developments in the U.S. regulatory landscape and CoinShares' strategy to expand its digital asset offerings in the U.S. market.
“Exercising our option to acquire Valkyrie Funds aims at extending our European success in the U.S, offering unparalleled access to regulated digital asset products to American investors,” CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said.
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Valkyrie CEO Leah Wald noted that CoinShares' expertise in combination with Valkyrie’s strengths, “promise to propel” them forward in the American digital asset investment sphere, “particularly within the digital asset ETF market.”
Potential ETF-focused collaboration between Valkyrie and CoinShares would possibly look familiar as some major European crypto investment firms have already been cooperating with some spot Bitcoin ETF issuers in the United States. 21Shares, one of the biggest issuers of crypto exchange-traded products in Europe, is a partner of ARK Invest in the issuance of the ARK Invest and 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, which started trading under the ticker symbol ARKB on the Cboe exchange.
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