Valour launches first ETP for Near Protocol’s native token

Cointelegraph2024/07/18 06:01

By:Alex O’Donnell

Crypto fund issuer Valour has launched an exchange-traded product (ETP) for Near Protocol’s native token, NEAR, according to a July 17 announcement from Valour’s parent company, DeFi Technologies.

The ETP will trade on Sweden’s Spotlight Stock Market, enabling retail and institutional investors to gain exposure to the decentralized application development platform, the announcement said.

Valour’s head of product, Elaine Buehler, said the new fund offering will allow investors to access an asset known for its “transformative impact on DeFi and NFTs,” referring to decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens.

Near Protocol is a technology stack designed to eliminate many of the challenges inherent to blockchain development, such as onboarding users and operating across multiple chains. Its native NEAR ( NEAR ) token currently has a market capitalization of approximately $6.8 billion, putting it among the top 20 digital assets globally, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

NEAR’s $6.8-billion market capitalization puts it among the 20 largest protocols. Source: CoinMarketCap

Web3 projects, including Burrow, a decentralized money market protocol, and Mintbase, an NFT platform, are built on Near Protocol’s technology stack.

The NEAR ETP will join Valour’s existing roster of alternative digital asset ETPs. Valour operates one of the largest Solana ETPs, Valor Solana, and offers a suite of staking products, including ETPs for Bitcoin ( BTC ), Ether ( ETH ) and Internet Computer ( ICP ).

On July 16, United States regulators reportedly granted preliminary approval to investment managers BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and VanEck to list the first exchange-traded ETH products in the US. Analysts say the imminent launch of ETH ETFs has opened the floodgates in the US for more crypto exchange-traded products, including a potential Solana-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Related: Ether ETF opens the floodgates for Solana ETFs and crypto products — Analyst

Valour’s parent company, DeFi Technologies, manages approximately $600 million in assets across a variety of crypto-native strategies. On July 16, the company agreed to buy trading desk Stillman Digital in an all-stock deal that analysts say will transform the Canadian crypto platform into “a smaller version of Galaxy Digital.”

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