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CoinShares (Nasdaq First North Growth Market: CS), Europe’s largest digital asset investment firm with $3.7B in AUM, as of May 27, 2021, recently revealed that it has made an investment in Viridi Funds (Viridi), an “emerging” fund manager.
CoinShares‘ management noted that it will be taking on an advisory role for Viridi, which will introduce the first ESG (environmental, social, governance) crypto mining product in the United States.
As mentioned in a release shared with CI, this latest investment marks CoinShares’ most recent strategic ESG investment, and the company’s role as an advisor to Viridi brings along its experienced management team “to assist in bringing an innovative new product to the US market.”
As noted in the announcement, exchange traded products (ETPs) are “core” to the CoinShares business, and asset management revenues from ETPs “made up 40% CoinShares’ Q1 revenues, generating $24M (£17M) in revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2021.”
The release also mentioned that ESG products now represent a growing category in international asset management. At the end of last year, global ESG assets “stood at $38 trillion, and are on track to exceed $53 trillion by 2025,” the announcement revealed.
The release further noted that the demand from European investors has “historically dominated the market for ESG-focused investments.” U.S. products could potentially bring the “next wave of organic expansion,” the announcement noted while adding that as investor demand for ESG mandates increases, funds managers and investment companies of all types will keep evolving their portfolios “to bring these innovative new products to market.”
As mentioned in the release from CoinShares:
“In recent months, cryptocurrencies have been under significant media scrutiny regarding their energy usage, but the facts simply don’t match the narrative. CoinShares Research has found that over 70% of bitcoin mining is done with renewables. On the other hand, the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has estimated that the figure is closer to 39%, which means bitcoin’s share of renewables is nearly double that of the U.S. energy grid.”
The announcement also noted:
“Through its investment arm, CoinShares Ventures, the firm has put forth an initiative to actively find and fund companies involved in creating a sustainable mining infrastructure, including recent investments in Compass Mining and MintGreen. This strategic investment in Viridi will further extend CoinShares’ market leadership in this area and allow the firm to meet emerging client appetite for these types of products.”
Meltem Demirors, CSO at CoinShares said that they believe in taking a proactive approach to identifying dominant market trends. Demirors added this collaboration with Viridi Funds is consistent with their aim “to advance the concept of sustainability on a global scale as well as provide innovative, forward thinking investment vehicles that make digital assets accessible to individuals and institutions alike.”
Demirors remarked:
“I am excited to bring our years of experience in exchange traded products and capital markets to this new product family and look forward to working closely with Wes and the Viridi team to bring ESG products to the US market and beyond.”
With the help of Luxor Technologies, Viridi aims to combine advanced knowledge of crypto mining economics and public markets “with proprietary, hashrate valuation principles to power a fundamentals-based investment strategy.”
Viridi will be “targeting investment into global crypto mining operations with leading ESG properties, hardware efficiency and operational expertise.”
Wes Fulford, CEO at Viridi Funds, stated:
“Our team is thrilled to welcome CoinShares as both an investor and advisor. Here at Viridi, we are focused on delivering a positive, tangible impact to global crypto mining markets through an active investment strategy which will help push operators to become greener. This is an important and necessary step for the mass adoption of cryptocurrency.”
For additional information on Viridi Funds and their launch, check here.
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