Switzerland’s primary stock exchange could soon list another crypto-currency based exchange traded product (ETP), which will track the price of the third largest crypto asset by market capitalization, XRP.
In an interview with crypto publication, Coindesk; Harry Rashwan, co-founder and CEO of the Swiss company Amun AG- which already offers several Crypto ETPs- said that his firm had received approval from SIX to issue the XRP-linked ETP that has the ticker name AXRP. He said;
“We can comfortably say that we expect to release the world’s first XRP ETP within the next two months.”
Rashwan also made it clear that aside from XRP, Amun has also gained clearance to issue ETPS linked to four more single crypto assets, including Bitcoin cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), EOS, and Stellar Lumens (XLM). It is not yet clear the exact time when these products will be officially launched, he did say though, that the firm plans to list all the eligible and approved crypto ETPs on SIX by the end of the year. The launch time will also be based on buyer interest.
The Swiss based exchange listed its first ETP that tracks a basket of the top weighted crypto assets in November 2018. That product was issued by AMUN for retail and institutional investors under ticker name “HODL” which is slang in the crypto community referring to the holding of assets as opposed to selling them off.
Since HODL was listed, its total monthly trading volume has surpassed that of XETC, which is an ETP that tracks crude oil- and became the top traded ETP on SIX in December and January, according to data provided by the SIX exchange. HODL has not escaped the current market decline, with its price per share dropping from $15 in November to its current $13.
Its market turnover also dropped to second place with about $4 million changing hands. Amun has in the past few weeks also added Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPS on the SIX exchange with Rashwan stating that most buyers of its crypto ETPS were based in Switzerland.
According to the listing rules enforced by SIX, since ETPS are passive investment instruments with no active trading strategies, they are therefore not treated as collective investment schemes subject to the approval or supervision by the Swiss market regulator, the Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
Crypto ETPs must however fulfill requirements with respect to investor protection efforts based on SIX’s practice circular for listing derivatives. For instance Rashwan stated that each unit of Amun’s crypto ETPS has to be collateralized and backed by an identical amount of crypto assets to be checked continuously.
SIX’s circular indicated that only the top 15 crypto-currencies by market capitalization on CoinMarketCap at the time of application can be considered for trading. It goes on to say that only cryptos based on open-source software functioning according to the principles of blockchain” are permitted as underlying instruments.
In the near future, Amun plans to launch an ERC-standard token administrated by its own platform on the back of the Ethereum network for use in tokenizing ETPs. The ambition is to allow both themselves and third parties tokenize both cryptos and traditional ETPs such as those tracking Gold so that tokens can be traded on securities token exchanges. The SIX exchange is currently also working on its own digital exchange inorder to use blockchain and trade tokenized assets. Recently the exchange choose R3’s Corda Enterprise platform to develop infrastructure, with an ambition of launching the SIX Digital Exchange in the second half of 2019.
Rashwan said;
“I don’t think we will have a real licensed and regulated securities token exchange with a professional partner in a reputable country until late this year or early next year – that’s my guess. But when that happens, we will be ready with three to five tokenized ETPs, including our own and others’.”
Team XRP has been on a roll these past few weeks. There is no denying that they are enjoying a stellar first quarter of the year in terms of partnerships. The number of projects interacting with XRP keep ballooning every week and one can only wait and see what the near future holds for XRP enthusiasts.
image courtesy of SIX
