Bitwise Asset Management, the world’s largest crypto index fund manager with over $1.0 billion in AUM,has announced the launch of the Bitwise Uniswap (UNI) Fund and the Bitwise Aave (AAVE) Fund. These two new strategies join the Bitwise DeFi Crypto Index Fund in simplifying access to the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) space for professional investors.
“There is growing demand from financial advisors, hedge funds, institutions, and other professional investors for exposure to the fast-growing DeFi markets,” said Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise. “Uniswap and Aave are the two largest DeFi protocols in our DeFi index, and are the largest decentralized exchange and decentralized lending protocol in the world, respectively. Bitwise’s vision is to make the opportunities emerging in crypto more accessible, and we’re thrilled to take another step with the world’s first Uniswap and Aave investment funds.”
The Bitwise Uniswap Fund will invest directly in UNI, the native token of the Uniswap protocol, the leading decentralized crypto exchange. Uniswap’s transparent, peer-to-peer trading system has proven to be a material alternative to conventional exchanges (such as Coinbase). In June 2021 alone, Uniswap handled more than $60 billion in trading volume, up 6,000% year over year.
The Bitwise Aave Fund will invest directly in AAVE, the native token of the Aave protocol, the leading decentralized and non-custodial lending and borrowing protocol. As a transparent, programmable, peer-to-peer alternative to conventional loan providers, Aave has seen remarkable adoption: Total outstanding loans on Aave’s platform grew from $93.7 million in July 2020 to $6.92 billion in July 2021, up over 70x year over year.
Bitwise manages a growing suite of investment funds, including the world’s first and largest crypto index fund, the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTCQX: BITW), that aim to simplify access to the full range of opportunities in the crypto space. The UNI and AAVE funds will form part of a growing suite of DeFi-focused products, including the Bitwise DeFi Crypto Index Fund, which launched in February 2021 as the first DeFi index fund in a traditional fund format. The firm focuses on partnering with investment professionals, and today serves RIAs, financial advisors, multifamily offices, high net worth individuals, hedge funds, and other institutional investors.
The new funds’ custodian is Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., which became the first federally chartered digital asset bank in U.S. history in January 2021, and today secures billions of dollars in cryptoassets.
