CoinShares Is Buying a Crypto Company. Why? To Make ETFs Great Again!

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Oh, look! Another crypto acquisition! Who saw this coming? European crypto asset manager CoinShares, in what can only be described as a move straight out of the “How to Dominate the Market” playbook, is about to buy London-based Bastion Asset Management. What’s the reason? Well, they’re planning to go public in the US. Like we didn’t see this one coming, right? Just another company cashing in on the crypto craze.

So, CoinShares made the big announcement Wednesday, and it’s all part of their genius plan to take over the US market with crypto investment products. But wait, there’s more! They also need approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (because they like to keep things interesting with red tape). If all goes according to plan, Bastion’s trading abilities, strategies, and, of course, its stellar team, will be fully integrated into CoinShares. No details on how much money is involved though. Go figure.

“By combining Bastion’s systematic trading expertise with our 1940 Act registration, we can develop actively managed products for the US market that go beyond simple directional exposure to cryptocurrencies,” said a spokesperson from CoinShares. Wow, the buzzwords! I can barely keep up. Someone stop them, they’re too fancy.

Active ETFs vs Passive ETFs: Who Wins? Does Anyone Really Care?

Let’s break this down. Passive ETFs? They track an index. That’s it. The end. Active ETFs? Well, they rely on people (yes, actual humans) picking investments. It’s like trying to outsmart the market by pretending you know something no one else does. Shocking, I know.

According to the CoinShares spokesperson, the US crypto scene is filled with people who only care about passive products, just tracking cryptocurrency prices. Classic. But the real winners? Those active products, because they want to make something happen-anything, really. And they’re hoping more institutions will catch on. Sure, why not? Get that institutional money!

CoinShares is all about that 1940 Act registration, meaning they can sell actively managed ETFs in the US. Big deal. But to pull this off, they’ll need Bastion’s super-technical trading skills. After all, creating these kinds of products isn’t as simple as throwing some random coins together and hoping for the best.

Apparently, Bastion’s team has 17 years of experience and has worked at some of the top hedge funds. BlueCrest, Systematica, Rokos Capital, GAM Systematic… sounds impressive, right? It’s almost like they have the magical formula for success. According to CoinShares:

“Their quantitative approach, using academically-backed signals to generate returns independent of market direction, is precisely the type of sophisticated, actively managed strategy that differentiates managers in competitive markets.”

Here Comes the Active ETFs!

So, despite the crypto ETF market booming (yeah, still trying to wrap my head around that), it’s mostly been dominated by passive ETFs. Think spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) funds. Oh joy. But-plot twist-July saw active crypto ETFs making a comeback, overtaking those lazy index-tracking funds. That’s right, the active ETFs have doubled in the last five years. Hold on to your hats, folks, things are about to get interesting!

“CoinShares will offer both directional products and strategies designed to generate alpha regardless of market conditions,” said the spokesperson. Alpha, beta, gamma… at this point, just give me a pi chart. But hey, they’re confident. Good for them.

CoinShares’ US Takeover

Now, CoinShares isn’t just dabbling in these products. Oh no, they’re planning to list themselves on a US exchange. Yeah, they’re doing the whole SPAC thing with a $1.2 billion pre-money valuation. Sounds easy, right?

They’re all excited about accessing US capital markets and getting in front of American institutional investors. Because who doesn’t want more people throwing money at them?

“The US remains the world’s deepest capital market for digital assets, and we’re building the infrastructure, team, and product suite to become a leading institutional player in that market.”

This announcement came right after the US SEC approved rule changes to make crypto fund listings faster. I mean, who wants to wait 240 days when you can launch an ETF in 75? The SEC finally gets it, I guess.

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2025-10-01 14:04