DeFi Technologies Inc's (NASDAQ: DEFT) investment product arm Valour has launched an exchange-traded product (ETP) tied to Zcash, giving European investors a regulated way to own exposure to
DeFi Technologies Inc's (NASDAQ: DEFT) investment product arm Valour has launched an exchange-traded product (ETP) tied to Zcash, giving European investors a regulated way to own exposure to the best-performing major cryptocurrency of the past two years, without touching the coin itself.
The Valour Zcash (ZEC) SEK ETP began trading on Sweden's Spotlight Stock Market on Sept. 29 with a management fee of 1.9%.
The product lets investors track ZEC's price through a standard brokerage account, sidestepping the crypto wallet setup and self-custody that buying the token directly requires.
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The launch chases one of crypto's most violent repricings.
ZEC traded near $16 in 2024; on Sept. 4 it crossed $1,000 for the first time, burning $34 million of short positions, and has since traded as high as the mid-$1,500s, a gain of more than 6,000% from its 2024 low that has made it the standout privacy trade of this cycle.
Institutional wrappers have been arriving in step. Grayscale converted its nine-year-old Zcash Trust into the first U.S. spot Zcash ETF in late August, bringing roughly $300 million to market on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH, a listing that helped power the September leg of the rally. Valour's ETP extends that access to European exchanges.
Zcash launched in 2016 and was the first widely used application of zk-SNARKs, a type of zero-knowledge proof that lets a transaction be verified without revealing the sender, receiver, or amount. Users choose between "shielded" transactions that keep that data private and "transparent" ones that work like standard blockchain transfers. ZEC is the network's native token, used for payments and fees.
“Zcash represents one of the most important early applications of zero-knowledge cryptography in digital assets, and interest in privacy-preserving blockchain infrastructure continues to grow,” Johan Wattenström, chief executive officer of DeFi Technologies, said in the announcement.
The issuer says the demand is coming from close to home.
“We have seen growing interest in ZEC from both professional and Nordic retail investors,” said Jacob Lindberg, chief revenue officer of Valour. “The demand for a listed product tracking ZEC has been clear. Bringing Zcash to Spotlight gives investors a familiar way to gain exposure through their existing brokerage infrastructure without having to purchase, store or manage the underlying digital asset directly.”
DeFi Technologies is a Nasdaq-listed fintech that bridges traditional capital markets and decentralized finance.
Valour, its subsidiary, issues exchange-traded products that track digital assets, a shelf of more than 100 ETPs spanning major cryptocurrencies, Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, DeFi protocols and staking products.
The company reported second-quarter revenue of $7.8 million with Valour's assets under management ending the quarter around $397 million, down from the prior year as crypto market slumped.
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