Grayscale debuts ETF to track digital asset-based equities index

Grayscale Investments has launched the Grayscale Future of Finance ETF, according to an announcement issued on Wednesday. The move marks the crypto investment giant’s maiden foray into the exchange-traded fund market.

Grayscale’s new ETF will trade under the GFOF ticker and track the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index. Launched in January, the GFOF index tracks 22 companies associated with several U.S. and non-U.S. digital asset-linked equities.

Details of the ETF show that America’s fifth-largest commercial lender U.S. Bank will act as the fund’s service provider and administrator while broker-dealer Foreside will be the distributor of the fund.

According to the announcement, these companies represent important sectors of the emerging digital economy including exchanges, asset managers, technology providers, and crypto mining companies among others.

GFOF will, however, not include companies that hold bitcoin treasuries as well as firms that manufacture chips for crypto miners. Digital payment processors will also not be captured by Grayscale’s new ETF.

GFOF now joins a growing list of funds that track crypto-linked securities including. Some of the current players in the field include the NFT-tracking index fund launched by Bitwise and Valkyrie’s innovative balance sheet ETF.

Before launching this ETF, Grayscale had also stated plans to convert its flagship Bitcoin Trust to a bitcoin ETF.