European stock exchange to list Bitcoin carbon-neutral ETP

A subsidiary of DeFi Technologies, Valour, will debut its new Carbon Neutral Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Product (ETP) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Trading of the ETP begins on Friday. 

The company positions its ETP as a “sustainable and climate-friendly” exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) with a management fee of 1.49%. The alignment with global environmental goals and Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) is reportedly achieved through funding certified carbon removal and offset initiatives to neutralize the associated BTC carbon footprint.

To structure the ETP, Valour partnered with Patch — a platform that provides climate action infrastructure and has previously worked with Andreessen Horowitz and other notable institutional investors. The announcement states:

“All carbon emissions linked to the investment will be automatically targeted to achieve carbon neutral output using Patch's API-based solution, which takes into account various inputs, such as the efficiency of mining equipment, distribution of hash power, and nation level carbon emission data, to estimate the amount of carbon emissions the Valour portfolio has.”

Patch will be responsible for selecting the projects upon based on their environmental integrity. These criteria will include “additionality, real and verifiable permanence, and negativity.”

Valour’s existing offering of ETPs includes Valour Binance (BNB), Valour Uniswap (UNI), Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), Cosmos (ATOM) and Enjin (ENJ). In March 2022, the company reported that it has reached $274.2 million in assets under management.

Despite crypto markets tanking this year, the interest in crypto-related financial products isn't fading. In July, Swiss crypto investment firm 21Shares launched two new ETPs offering investors exposure to the largest cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) — while aiming to soften volatility via rebalancing assets to the United States dollar.