In a strategic move to expand its presence in Europe and the broader crypto industry, asset manager and Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuer Bitwise Investment has closed a deal to acquire ETC Group, a major crypto issuer headquartered in London.

Bitwise Doubles Institutional Bitcoin

While specific terms of the transaction have not yet been disclosed, Bitwise announced Monday that the San Francisco-based company will manage a significant $4.5 billion in assets upon completion of the deal.

Founded in 2019, ETC Group has established itself as a pioneer in the European crypto ETP space, according to to Bloomberg, which offers a suite of physically-backed funds tracking popular digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP. Its flagship, the $700 million Bitcoin ETP, is the largest on the continent.

It is notable that all of ETC Group’s products are backed by physical assets. There are plans to sell these products under the Bitwise banner in the future.

In January of this year, Bitwise launched its first spot Bitcoin ETF in the US, the Bitwise Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (BITB), following approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has quickly raised over $2 billion in assets under management (AuM number).

Last month, Bitwise also launched its first spot Ethereum ETP, the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW), which attracted over $300 million in assets within weeks of its launch.

CEO optimistic about expanding crypto expertise to Europe

Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, expressed his excitement about the acquisition, highlighting the opportunity to serve European investors, provide global insights to clients and diversify the market. product suite with “innovative ETPs.”

Reflecting on Bitwise’s six-year journey as a respected asset manager in the crypto space, Horsley reaffirmed the firm’s commitment to delivering expertise and value to European investors, institutions and advisors. Horsley further stated:

We are proud of the reputation we have built over the past six years among advisors, institutions and investors as an experienced asset manager in the crypto markets. We look forward to bringing this expertise to European investors.

At the time of writing, the largest cryptocurrency in the market, Bitcoin, is trading at $58,200. However, the important $60,000 mark was not reached over the weekend, as there were too few positive catalysts in the market.

BTC is down more than 2% over the past 24 hours but found support at $56,000 last week, which will be crucial for bullish investors to hold on to avoid a deeper drop. withdrawal in the coming days and once again test the 7-month low of $49,000 reached on August 5.

Ethereum, on the other hand, suffered a steeper decline compared to Sunday’s price, trading at $2,570, down 3.4% over the same period.

Main image of DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com