Coinbase confirms it is killing its cryptocurrency index fund

Update 15:30 PM UTC: Coinbase has confirmed the reports: the cryptocurrency exchange is indeed shutting down its index fund. In an email to Hard Fork, a spokesperson for the company told us the following:

After assessing demand from retail, accredited and institutional investors, Coinbase has decided to shut down Coinbase Index Fund.

We will focus on providing diversified exposure to all investors through Coinbase Bundle. Coinbase Bundle is an easy-to-use, low-cost tool provided through the Coinbase Consumer platform. It is available to all Coinbase customers – there is no requirement to be an accredited investor and the minimum investment is $25. We’ve decided to refocus the resources devoted to managing the Coinbase Index Fund to other parts of the business.

(We have also updated the title to reflect this accordingly.)

Coinbase has reportedly taken the decision to shut down its cryptocurrency index fund after lack of interest.

An informant close to the matter told The Block the cryptocurrency exchange’s market-weighted index failed to attract enough interest from accredited investors.

It appears the index did not perform as well as Coinbase forecast. The fund targeted at accredited investors required a minimum investment of $250,000.

Coinbase recently turned its attention to more casual investors with its Coinbase Bundles. Similar to an index fund, but it is just a bundle of top cryptocurrencies of the day, investments start from as little as $25.

Cryptocurrency investment platform Abra also recently released its BIT10 market tracking token. Like an index fund, it tracks the markets top 10 cryptocurrencies of the month. BIT10 can be bought from $5.

It seems cryptocurrency exchanges are still intent on offering index-styled investments, but clearly the success of such products might not be with big money investors.

Hard Fork reached out to Coinbase for comment on the matter, we will update this piece if we learn more.

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