Bitwise NEAR Staking ETP makes Xetra debut today

Bitwise has launched a new exchange-traded product on the Deutsche Börse Xetra. The ETP offers investors exposure to AI-based blockchain NEAR with staking benefits.

According to a press release sent to crypto.news, the crypto asset manager has launched its first NEAR Staking ETP on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra platform. The product is meant to attract both institutional and retail investors who are looking to diversify their portfolios by investing in products grounded in digital assets.

Marked with the ticker NEAR; ISIN DE000A4A5GV2, the NEAR (NEAR) Staking ETP is fully backed and issued in Germany, offering exposure to crypto assets as well as staking returns with low cost of ownership. The ETP is designed to accumulate daily staking yields.

The addition of its NEAR Staking ETP marks the fourth Bitwise ETP to make its debut in Europe, as part of the platform’s European Total Return product suite including the already established Bitwise Ethereum (ETH) Staking ETP.

However, the platform’s Ethereum Staking ETP has experienced a delay in its long-anticipated U.S. launch after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced it would extend its review of Bitwise’s proposal on July 1.

For investors, the NEAR Staking ETP can offer them exposure to staking rewards without having to manage the technical details of staking or token custody. This means that they can bypass having to hold NEAR directly or using third party wallets or validators.

In addition, the ETP offers benefits for investors which include daily liquidity, as it is traded on regulated stock exchanges and does not prescribe to any lock-up periods or manual delegation.

Additionally, the underlying NEAR tokens are held in cold storage by an institutional custodian.

Head of Europe at Bitwise, Bradley Duke, said that the platform is excited to launch the new ETP in partnership with NEAR, a blockchain that makes AI technology accessible.

“The Bitwise NEAR Staking ETP gives investors exposure to price movements in the NEAR token as well as compounded return from staking rewards all with Bitwise’s best-in-class ETP structure,” said Duke in his statement.

NEAR Protocol is a layer1 blockchain that is designed to make AI and other technological advancements accessible and useful for on-chain users. Established in 2020, NEAR addresses common challenges in blockchain by using sharding technology that enables the network to process many transactions at once.

The deployment of this technology is able to solve the problems of slow transaction processing and high costs.

In addition, developers can benefit from NEAR’s customizable smart contracts support multichain financial applications using secure cryptographic tools without the need for bridges or wrapped tokens.