Bitwise Launches Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund, Offering Broad Exposure to the Most Iconic Digital Art Collections

Bitwise Asset Management, the world’s largest crypto index fund manager with over $1.6 billion in AUM, announced the launch of the Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund, a strategy that gives investors broad exposure to the world’s largest and most-established non-fungible token, or NFT, art collections. By offering access to a large cross-section of a new market in a familiar format, the Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund is designed for investors intrigued by the NFT market but without the time or desire to participate in periodic auctions or bid on individual pieces of art.

NFTs, or digital proofs of ownership recorded on decentralized blockchains, have galvanized global art markets in recent months. Individual works from well-known NFT collections like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Autoglyphs have sold for millions of dollars at auction houses and attracted intense media interest. Meanwhile, NFT trading volumes spiked to more than $10 billion in the third quarter of 2021.

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“New frontiers in art are rare. Entirely new artistic mediums are even rarer,” said Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan. “NFTs have emerged as the first digitally native medium for owning art and collectibles, with enormous potential for meaning, value, and use in our increasingly digital world. For many investors, that combination spells potential opportunity. The Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund seeks to give these investors simple, diversified access to the digital art market’s most valuable collections in a meaningful way.”

The fund will seek to track the Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Collections Index, a basket of the 10 largest NFT collections weighted by market capitalization, with a methodology aimed at optimizing liquidity and price discovery. From its launch, the fund will begin to purchase and hold in custody NFTs from blue-chip collections with a combined total market capitalization of more than $6 billion, including CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Autoglyphs, Fidenza, VeeFriends, and more. Moreover, the fund’s relatively low minimums will give investors the opportunity to share ownership in digital art to which they might not otherwise have access, particularly given the cost, time, and complexity of sourcing and purchasing individual NFTs.

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“Since Bitwise launched the world’s first crypto index fund in 2017, our aim has always been to give investors a smart and convenient way to participate in crypto’s growth wherever that leads us,” said Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley. “And recently it’s become clear that any conversation about crypto’s potential must include NFTs, which are fundamentally changing how we think about not just owning art but property rights in general. Being able to invest in some of the NFT movement’s most defining collections as these evolve is an opportunity we wanted to make available to those who are as compelled by the space as we are.”

The launch of the Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund rounds out a year in which Bitwise has created eight other crypto funds — four of which were index-based, including the Bitwise DeFi Index Fund and the Bitwise “ex Bitcoin” Index Fund. Bitwise partners with investment professionals, today serving hundreds of RIAs, financial advisors, multifamily offices, hedge funds, and other institutional investors with a nationwide business development team.

The Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund is currently available to accredited investors for private placement subscription with a $25,000 minimum investment and will provide monthly redemptions after an initial lock-up period.

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