Trading InfoSnack: Cryptophoria

SIX Swiss Exchange is the world’s leading regulated marketplace to trade products with crypto-currencies as underlyings. With the dramatic rise in the market capitalisation and trading activity in crypto-currencies over the past 12 months, there has been a corresponding increase in creation and trading of synthetic crypto-products such as Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) and Structured Products (SPs).

In the new Trading InfoSnack Cryptophoria, the market analytics team of the Swiss Stock Exchange analyzes the net flows in aggressive turnover of ETPs and SPs listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange, and their correlation to the returns of a key underlying crypto-currency, to draw some insights on how different investors are seeking crypto-exposures.

Currently, SIX Swiss Exchange offers investors a choice of over 100 products with crypto-currencies as underlyings from 7 issuers. In 2020, trading turnover reached a record of CHF 1,1 billion, and in February 2021, this record was surpassed in a single month with CHF 1,2 billion.

These figures illustrate the success story of crypto products on the Swiss Stock Exchange, whose origins can be traced back to 2016, when Bank Vontobel listed a structured product certificate that tracked Bitcoin. The first crypto index ETP was listed on SIX in November 2018 by Amun (now called 21shares) – a world premiere at the time. A physically backed ETP on Bitcoin as a single currency was listed by WisdomTree in December 2019, followed by the very first actively-managed Crypto ETP tradable on a regulated marketplace, launched by Bitcoin Capital in July 2020. More recently, further issuers joined and listed crypto-products on the Swiss Stock Exchange, such as ETC Group and CoinShares. 

The Trading InfoSnack articles are insightful research features that provide commentary on market relevant trends, models and microstructure that influence the trading of Swiss securities, underpinned by in-depth analysis from the Equities team of SIX Swiss Exchange.

To trading and market structure professionals with a focus on the EMEA region, the previous Trading InfoSnacks are also of interest: Last Orders, Size Matters, Liquidity under the Volatility Microscope, Closing Auctions: What’s Hanging in the Balance?, Back to the Future(s) and What’s in a Liquidity Smile?