The Nasdaq-listed digital assets financial services company has launched a new type of Bitcoin (BTC) investment product, a BTC dated futures contract with a physical settlement.

The Eqonex BTC Dated Futures are denominated in the USD Coin stablecoin (USDC) and are linear in that the price of the futures increases as the price of BTC increases against USDC. The expiry of the dated future will occur at 08:00 UTC on the final Friday of the expiry month.

Users can trade Eqonex BTC Dated Futures on a margin up to 125x leverage. Physical settlement occurs automatically on the expiry date, removing some hedging risks compared to cash-settled contracts. 

The launch of Eqonex BTC Dated Futures with physical BTC settlement is part of the Nasdaq company’s plans to bring traditional finance strategies to crypto. It follows the introduction of Cross Collateral trading, Ethereum Perpetual Futures, and BTC Perpetual Futures in 2021.

‘We still see a gap in the exchange marketplace to better serve traders who are looking for safe access to products and strategies from traditional finance to exploit and hedge against the volatility of crypto market trading,’ said Andrew Eldon (pictured), interim CEO of Eqonex.

Valour launches Polkadot and Cardano ETPs in Frankfurt

Valour, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DeFi Technologies, has started trading two new exchange-traded products (ETPs) in Frankfurt: Valour Polkadot (DOT) EUR and Valour Cardano (ADA) EUR.

The new ETPs will enable both retail and institutional investors to gain exposure to the native tokens of the Polkadot and Cardano networks via their bank or broker.

The Valour Polkadot (DOT) EUR ETP tracks the price of DOT, the native token of the Polkadot protocol while the Valour Cardano (ADA) EUR ETP tracks the performance of the native token of Cardano, the governance token of the world's largest decentralised exchange.

‘We are expanding our product offerings in the large German market through these listings on Boerse Frankfurt,’ said Tommy Fransson (right), CEO of Valour, adding that in Scandinavia, where Valour Polkadot and Cardano are already listed, the company has seen a big interest in these crypto assets.

BSE launches trade in crypto ETNs on international market segment

The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) has started trade in crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) that are based and follow the prices of the Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies.

Investors can now trade in eight crypto ETNs on the MTF BSE International market of the Sofia bourse.

With the launch of trade in crypto ETNs on the BSE International market, investors do not need to create their own crypto portfolios or crypto keys, and yet they receive guarantees that the instruments they choose are systematically regulated and regulation compliant, BSE executive director Manyu Moravenov said.

A total of 198 financial instruments of global companies will be traded on MTF BSE International following the latest admission. BSE International's trading party is Germany's Tradegate, which is the market maker of all BSE International issues registered on the market.

BSE International market segment was launched in July last year, allowing local investors to invest directly in global companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, Intel, Cisco, 3M, Siemens, General Electric and Tesla.

Solana based firm to launch first dual currency notes and accumulators on DeFi

Exotic Markets has launched an alpha version of the protocol via a DevNet platform to bring its structured products protocol to the Solana blockchain.

Structures introduced to the DeFi industry by the company include accumulators, dual currency products and worst-of options.

With dual currency notes, users can deposit their token and be paid a return linked to the performance of the deposited token. For those who prefer to diversify their portfolio, the accumulator feature offers the option to buy a token at a lower price. 

Exotic Markets users can invest in these products through five DevNet tokens that the team will issue once the platform goes live. 

An extra feature is the ability to swap tokens when needed. Five tokens will be supported initially: BTC, SOL, SRM, RAY, and USDC. These tokens are DevNet assets, allowing users to play around with the different investment products and monitor their performance. Exotic Markets is compatible with other Solana wallets like Phantom and Solflare. 

The DevNet launch introduces a real-time leaderboard to help users track their performance. In addition, both the best and worst performers will receive NFT vouchers - redeemable for EXO tokens once the Exotic Markets MainNet launch occurs.

An audit of the Exotic Markets protocol will occur in March 2022, courtesy of blockchain cybersecurity firm Halborn. Following the audit, the Exotic Markets MainNet will launch at the end of March 2022. 

Exotic Markets raised US$5m in a private investment round in late 2021. The private token sales welcomed investors including Multicoin, Ascensive Assets, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, and others.  

DeFi Technologies in strategic partnership with RockX

DeFi Technologies has announced a strategic partnership with RockX – a Singapore-based institutional gateway to crypto finance and blockchains. The aim of the partnership is to provide staking yield through financial products.

RockX has more than US$400m in assets staked, providing US$40m in annual yield.

The strategic partnership outlines a framework between the two companies to enhance the staking components of their current respective ETP infrastructures, co-develop ETP products, provide institutional staking services, custodian services, and real time data yield oracle.

‘This partnership with RockX is yet another step in our evolution towards becoming the best way to offer investors exposure to a diversified play on Web 3.0,’ said Russell Starr (right), executive chairman & CEO of DeFi Technologies.

Fidelity to list Bitcoin ETPs in Germany and Switzerland

Fidelity International has launched a physical Bitcoin ETP which is available for trading on the Deutsche Boerse Xetra and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FBTC. Additionally, the company plans to list the investment vehicle on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Fidelity Digital Assets will act as the custodian of the ETP, which will be centrally cleared with the global exchange Eurex Clearing. The ETP has a total expense ratio of 0.75%.

Fidelity International had more than US$812 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2021.

The Xetra digital exchange currently offers exposure to cryptocurrencies including BTC, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Cardano, Solana (SOL), Stellar (XLM), Tezos (XTZ) and Tron (TRX) through ETPs and notes. In November 2021, asset manager Invesco listed a BTC ETP on the exchange under the symbol BTIC.