21Shares debuts 1st Decentraland ETP; Institutions entering Metaverse?

Namrata Shukla
MANA ETP
Source: Binance

The world’s largest issuer of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products [ETPs], 21Shares announced the listing of “two new world’s first crypto ETP on Decentraland and FTX at BX Swiss.” The CEO and co-founder of 21Shares, Hany Rashwan called it a key milestone in making crypto accessible to everyone, per a press release.

Decentraland’s MANA offered exposure to the first decentralized user-owned virtual reality platform that allows users to create, experience, and monetize content and applications. This included the purchase of virtual land. According to Decentraland, more than $180 million of land has been purchased to date.

The CEO and co-founder stated,

“Adding the worlds’ first NFT & single Metaverse ETP and one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges to our product suite is a key milestone for us in making crypto accessible for everyone.”

This first metaverse ETP surely will be an interesting product for the crypto and the mainstream users who have stayed away from investing. ETPs’ low-cost structure adds to its popularity and as 21Shares delves deeper into crypto ETPs, it will surely spark competition among others.

Apart from MANA, 21Shares was also listing FTX token ETP on the BX Swiss. the ticker for the same was AFTT and it offered exposure to FTX, a crypto derivative exchange offering products like derivatives, options, volatility-related products, and leverage tokens. Its FTT token was the third-biggest exchange token with a daily trading volume of over $2.5 billion.

With the new additions, 21Shares now successfully managed over $2 billion in 28 cryptocurrencies ETPs. It had also announced 21Shares Aave ETP, the 21Shares Chainlink ETP, and the 21Shares Uniswap ETP earlier this month.

While the aforementioned assets are representative of different protocols(Lending, DeFi, DEXs, etc, etc) Mana’s ETP is the 1st based out from the metaverse-based ecosystem. Over the past few weeks, Decentraland has expanded in terms of its development, as Samsung announced that it will be conducting its Galaxy 22 launch on Mana’s metaverse.

It can be speculated that 21Shares taking the initiative to launch an ETP could be based on the premise of rising institutional interest for Decentraland. While it is too early to determine if other organizations will follow suit, the current development certainly brings MANA token into the bigger picture.