First NFT-exposed ETF in the US

With the NFT hype as high as ever (“NFT” was even chosen as a word of the year by the Collins dictionary) and billions of dollars’ worth of NFTs traded monthly, it was only a matter of time until they hit the stock markets.

Now they officially have, even if somewhat indirectly.

This week fintech company Defiance launched an NFT-exposed fund, listed on NYSE Arca under the $NFTZ ticker. As it is the case of the American crypto ETFs approved so far, it does not directly hold the assets, but rather tracks their performance. NFTZ tracks the German BITA NFT and Blockchain Select Index, composed of the shares of companies that derive their value from cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

ETF stands for Exchange-Traded Product, and its main advantage is to give people exposure to an asset without buying it. ETFs tracking crypto, whether directly or indirectly, are a big success wherever they launch, showing investor’s rising interest for crypto economy. An ETF that tracks NFT-exposed companies looks like a logical suite.

What’s next? The SEC is facing more and more pressure from the industry to approve physically backed crypto ETFs. If it does, why not a physically backed NFT fund?

We are so early still ?