ETF Express Newsletter

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NEWSLETTER | 24 Jan 2020

Blockchain to obliterate back office costs

Jonathan Steinberg, founder and CEO of WisdomTree, comments on his renewed commitment to bringing blockchain technology into ETFs, as demonstrated by the firm taking the lead in a recent fundraising round for Securrency, Inc, a developer of institutional-grade blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology. For his part, Securrency CEO, Dan Doney says that his firm’s compliance-led blockchain initiative could have a substantial impact on ETFs. “With blockchain, we see a pathway to obliterate back office costs, drive them down substantially, which will be beneficial to practitioners and investors,” Doney says.

In other news, we have returned to interview Claire Smith of Beyond Investing’s VEGN ETF who four months after its launch has demonstrated outperformance of the S&P 500 and raised USD14 million from a range of investors, but mostly those who are truly committed to the Vegan cause. Watch this space for a European version of the VEGN ETF in September this year. VEGN recently got a ‘one to watch’ shout out from influential Barron’s.

Beverly Chandler
Managing Editor, ETF Express

Companies in this issue
Amun
Beyond Investing
Lipper Refinitiv
Russell Investments
UBS
WisdomTree

WisdomTree’s Jonathan Steinberg says blockchain could be the next revolution for ETFs

Thu | 23 Jan 2020, 12:57

WisdomTree, the largest independent ETF issuer in the world, has stepped up its commitment to blockchain technology by leading a fundraising round for Securrency, Inc, a developer of institutional-grade blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology.

VEGN ETF outperforms S&P 500

Thu | 23 Jan 2020, 12:57

Since launching in September last year, Beyond Investing’s Vegan Climate ETF (VEGN) has seen outperformance with the fund up 9.86 per cent in the quarter to end December 2019, against the S&P 500 Index which was up 9.07 per cent per cent over the same period.

Thu | 23 Jan 2020, 12:57

The Lipper team at Refinitiv reports that the promoters of ETFs experienced net inflows of EUR18.0 billion for December, pushing the assets under management in the European ETF industry (EUR870.0 billion) to a new all-time high.

Global ETF launches 16-23.01.20

Thu | 23 Jan 2020, 12:57

This week’s new launches include a first from Amun with the debut of a bitcoin inverse tracker ETP providing investors with exposure to negative bitcoin price movements. Elsewhere, UBS launched a new commodities carry trade ETF, while Russel Investments debuted its initial actively managed exchange-traded fund series (ETF series) based on key Russell Investments mutual funds.