The world's second-largest cryptocurrency asset management company, Coinshares, will be listed on March 11, with assets under management exceeding $4.5 billion

This article is an original piece by Chain Catcher, authored by Echo and Hu Tao.

On February 22, CoinShares, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency asset management company, published its prospectus on its official website, announcing that its listing plan has been approved by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. It will be listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Sweden on March 11, offering 3.36 million shares to investors at a price of 44.90 Swedish Krona per share. The total market capitalization of the company's shares before the offering is approximately 2.837 billion Swedish Krona (about 342.69 million USD), with the stock code "COIN."
CoinShares was established in 2013 and primarily provides qualified investors with risk exposure to cryptocurrency assets. In 2014, it launched the world's first regulated Bitcoin investment fund and has since issued nine types of cryptocurrency-based ETP products on various exchanges, including the Deutsche Börse. As of February 19, 2021, CoinShares managed assets worth 4.56 billion USD, including 70,185 BTC and 655,211 ETH, making it the largest cryptocurrency asset management company in Europe and the second largest globally, after Grayscale.
In comparison, as of February 24, Grayscale's total assets under management amounted to 39.3 billion USD, Bitwise's assets just surpassed 1 billion USD, and Galaxy Digital's assets under management were 834.7 million USD as of January 31.
According to the prospectus, CoinShares achieved operating revenue of 11.3 million GBP in the first three quarters of 2020, with an operating loss of 187 million GBP, but a net profit of 14.29 million GBP. Chain Catcher learned that the significant operating loss was due to a substantial increase in liabilities for ETP holders, but the digital assets held by the company for hedging purposes appreciated significantly, offsetting the total loss.
As of September 30, 2020, CoinShares had total assets of 808 million GBP, with net assets of 59.64 million GBP after deducting liabilities.

Currently, CoinShares mainly has two business segments: passive products and capital markets. CoinShares' passive products provide ETPs that track the prices of specific digital assets, offering clients exposure to digital assets such as BTC, ETH, LTC, and XRP, with potential future launches of ETP products related to BCH, ETC, and NEO. CoinShares charges an annual management fee of 2.5% for all ETP products, which is also the company's main source of income.
CoinShares' capital markets business focuses on trading activities, providing trading liquidity for the aforementioned ETP products and conducting hedging and arbitrage trades. In 2020, the total trading volume for this business reached 7.577 billion USD, an increase of 232.3% compared to 2019.
Additionally, CoinShares offers clients active strategies, index strategies, and consulting services. On February 22, CoinShares, in collaboration with Imperial College London, issued a DeFi index token CGI based on a basket of assets including WBTC, WETH, and wGOLD on Ethereum, primarily targeting institutional investors for sales.
The prospectus also disclosed that CoinShares made several investments at the end of last year. On December 31, CoinShares signed an agreement with Canadian crypto asset management company 3IQ Corp to acquire 9% equity in the company for 2.25 million USD; on December 21, CoinShares signed an agreement with the parent company of the U.S. qualified trust institution Kingdom Trust to acquire 8% equity in the company for 1.96 million USD.
The prospectus indicates that 30% of the funds raised in this public offering will be used to strengthen the company's balance sheet, thereby enhancing the capabilities of CoinShares' internal trading team in capital markets; 20% will be used to develop and distribute new products to expand the product range; and 20% will be allocated for acquiring potential businesses.
Currently, members of the company's board and executive management, existing shareholders, and external investors have made subscription commitments of approximately 125 million Swedish Krona, accounting for about 83% of the total issuance.
CoinShares' listing plan has also attracted attention from the cryptocurrency industry. "Considering Coinbase's pricing expectations, if calculated conservatively at 50 times EBITDA, the company's valuation could be between 3 billion and 5 billion USD," said Ryan Selkis, founder of the well-known research institution Messari.
It is worth noting that CoinShares is not the first cryptocurrency asset management company to go public; Galaxy Digital has already been listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada, with a current total market capitalization of 1.474 billion USD.