Asset manager T. Rowe Price on Thursday debuted its first crypto exchange-traded fund, giving investors exposure to Bitcoin and other digital coins.
T. Rowe Price, which with $1.89 trillion in assets is one of the largest U.S. asset managers, said that its Active Crypto ETF is the first actively managed multi-token spot ETF on the market.
The ETF, which trades on the NYSE Arca under the ticker TKNZ, mainly gives investors exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum, weighed 40.75% and 18.42%, respectively, but includes other assets like Solana, XRP, Hyperliquid, Dogecoin, and BNB.
T. Rowe Price applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the product last October.
“Through the launch of the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF, investors can gain access to a thoughtfully curated, professionally managed multi-coin portfolio that helps eliminate the guesswork of building a crypto allocation on their own,” Blue Macellari, who works as head of digital assets at the firm, said in an announcement.
The announcement added that the product was the “first of the firm’s lineup” for the digital asset space, hinting that more ETFs could soon follow.
Writing on X Thursday, Bloomberg Intelligence’s senior research analyst, James Seyffart, said: “Launching during a bear market and I know for a fact this product was years in the making. Legacy asset managers continue to build in the crypto space despite the pullback in prices.”
Explosion in crypto and Bitcoin ETFs
In January 2024, the SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs by BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale and other asset managers after years of denying applications.
The funds had the most successful debut in the ETF industry’s history, and now manage billions in dollars in assets.
Ethereum funds followed the same year and a number of altcoin products are now on the market for U.S. and European investors.
More traditional investors and Wall Street institutions can now buy crypto via shares that trade on traditional stock exchanges.
Investors were previously put off by some of the harder aspects of crypto management, such as keeping private keys safe and digital coin storage.
The Bitcoin ETFs in particular have helped integrate the asset into traditional finance, making it easier to borrow against or use as collateral.
Under President Trump’s crypto-friendly administration, regulators have become more relaxed towards regulating the digital asset space; many SEC lawsuits and investigations targeting crypto firms have been scrapped since the Republican took office.
