The gaping hole left by the virtual disappearance of cryptocurrencies in their ETP form in the late part of 2022 and early part of 2023 has been partially filled with the return of performance within the sector. The Trackinsight data published this week in ETF Express shows digital asset ETPs focused on bitcoin miners, bitcoin and blockchain are dominating the top 10 spots in performance terms. Certainly, the Bloomberg Galaxy Defi Index is up 34 per cent year to date but in case we get too comfortable, bitcoin dropped 3 per cent in the markets in 15 minutes this week, causing anxiety again for institutional and retail investors.
In this week’s features, we bring you Mirva Anttila, Director, Digital Assets Research, WisdomTree, who writes that digital asset prices, led by bitcoin, have had a strong 2023 so far with data from the firm showing bitcoin up by over 70 per cent this year and Ether up by over 50 per cent.
Europe has been at the forefront of launching cryptocurrency associated ETPs and European ETFs generally are gathering steam across the board this year. Invesco reports that the Q1 2023 net inflows not only marked an acceleration versus Q4 2022, when ETFs attracted USD27.2 billion in net new assets (NNA) but were almost half of the USD87 billion NNA total raised in all of last year.
BNP Paribas has taken this moment to launch the ETF Management Observatory, in partnership with The Quantalys Harvest Group. BNP Paribas, winners in the ETF Express European Awards as Best European Fixed Income ETF Issuer ($100m-$1bn), writes that it anticipates continued high inflows in Europe in 2023, in line with the average inflows of previous years. Helped by the popularity of ESG and thematic strategies, inflows are forecast to exceed EUR100 billion this year, the firm says.
This week sees the recording of the next of our ETF Express podcasts, in association with TrussEdge, providers of front, middle and back-office software and services to ETF issuers.
You can listen to our first podcast with Detlef Glow from Refinitiv and Athanasios Psarofagis of Bloomberg Intelligence, here.
Nominations are also open for service providers to the Canada ETF industry for our inaugural Canada ETF Express awards.
To nominate your favourite Canadian ETF service providers, or indeed nominate your own firm, please click here.
Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor
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