T. Rowe Price on Thursday launched its first crypto exchange-traded fund, offering investors exposure to Bitcoin and a broader basket of digital assets.
The asset manager said its new product, the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF, is the first actively managed multi-token spot ETF on the market. The fund trades on NYSE Arca under the ticker TKNZ.
Bitcoin and Ethereum lead the portfolio
The ETF is weighted primarily toward Bitcoin and Ethereum, which make up 40.75% and 18.42% of the portfolio, respectively. It also includes Solana, XRP, Hyperliquid, Dogecoin and BNB.
T. Rowe Price manages $1.89 trillion in assets, making it one of the largest U.S. asset managers. The firm filed for the product with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in October last year.
“Through the launch of the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF, investors can gain access to a thoughtfully curated, professionally managed multi-coin portfolio that helps eliminate the guesswork of building a crypto allocation on their own,” Blue Macellari, head of digital assets at the firm, said in an announcement.
The announcement added that the fund is the “first of the firm’s lineup” for digital assets, pointing to the possibility of more ETF products ahead.
Analyst comments on the timing
Writing on X on Thursday, Bloomberg Intelligence senior research analyst James Seyffart said: “Launching during a bear market and I know for a fact this product was years in the making. Legacy asset managers continue to build in the crypto space despite the pullback in prices.”
A post from Bitcoin Magazine the same day said the product was the first actively managed multi-token spot crypto ETP and noted that 40.75% of the fund is allocated to Bitcoin.
Crypto ETF market keeps expanding
In January 2024, the SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale and other asset managers after years of rejecting applications. According to the report, those funds posted one of the most successful debuts in ETF industry history and now manage billions of dollars in assets.
Ethereum funds followed later that year, and a range of altcoin products are now available to investors in the U.S. and Europe. That has opened a route for traditional investors and Wall Street institutions to access crypto through shares listed on conventional stock exchanges.
Before that, some investors had been discouraged by the operational side of holding crypto directly, including private key security and digital asset storage. The report said Bitcoin ETFs in particular have helped pull the asset further into traditional finance, making it easier to borrow against it or use it as collateral.
Under President Trump’s crypto-friendly administration, regulators have taken a looser approach toward oversight of the digital asset sector, the report said. Since the Republican took office, a number of SEC lawsuits and investigations targeting crypto firms have been dropped.
The story first appeared in Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.