21.co, Swiss Crypto ETP Giant With Cathie Wood Links, Claims $2B After Funding

Swiss fintech firm 21.co, which counts Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood among its owners, raised $25 million in a funding round that the parent of the world’s largest issuer of crypto-focused exchange-traded products (ETPs) said brings its value to $2 billion. .

The Zurich-based company – which also owns Amun, a token provider focused on DeFi accessibility in the world – will use the proceeds to expand its product line and move into new regions such as the Middle East.

The expansion will include “a couple of net new products for us, not just more ETPs or more tokens, but also completely new product areas,” says Ophelia Snyder, co-founder of 21.co and Forbes 30 under 30 member

The latest funding was led by London-based Marshall Wace and included contributions from Collab+Currency, Quiet Ventures, ETFS Capital and Valor Equity Partners.

The high-profile Wood has links to Snyder and her co-founder Hany Rashwan. Earlier this year, Amun and Ark Invest applied for permission to register a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States before being denied by the Securities and Exchange Commission in March for failing to meet the requirement to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and protect investors and public interest. The regulator has refused to list any cryptocurrency ETFs based on spot trading because of these concerns.

“Getting a Bitcoin ETF through the SEC is going to be very difficult, they’ve made it clear, they’re not going to let it happen for a long time,” said Wood, who owns a personal stake in the Swiss company.

The market downturn known as crypto winter has hit 21.co’s business. A company press release 21.co said the firm, founded in 2018, reached its peak assets under management of $3 billion in November 2021, the month Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $69,000 and the crypto capitalization was at a record 3 trillion. The market has retreated to around $950 billion today, but the 21.co founders insist they don’t fear the bear.

“We launched at the height of the last bull market. Within a month of launching our first ever product, we then entered a prolonged bear market,” says Rashawn, referring to the downturn in 2018. “The majority of our building has occurred in the last bear market. So the way we look at it is that everything we’ve accomplished today is because of what we built in the last bear market,” adds Rashawn. His company has raised $650 million in net new assets over the last 12 months, despite the crypto downdraft, and employees have grown 75%.

“I am a shareholder. And a very happy one, I might add, says Wood.