German asset management firm Iconiq Funds, the newly-launched asset management arm of Germany-based Iconiq Holding, the team behind the decentralised VC group, Iconiq Lab, is launching a series of digital asset index funds beginning in Q4 2018.
The passively-managed funds will track the top digital assets by market capitalisation, allowing investors the opportunity to gain diversified exposure to the growth of the blockchain ecosystem through traditional financial vehicles, such as ETFs and ETNs.
The first digital asset index fund launched by Iconiq will be a Maltese Professional Investor Fund, more commonly known as a PIF. The fund is currently under review by the Maltese regulator, the MFSA, and is expected to launch in Q4 2018.
From there, Iconiq Funds writes that it will leverage their extensive financial markets experience to launch Crypto Index Exchange Traded Funds and Notes in 2019. Such low-fee investment products are common in the traditional asset management space, yet are nearly unknown in the emerging world of crypto with many regulatory questions still to be answered.
Iconiq Holding Managing Partner, Maximilian Lautenschläger, says such investment vehicles are necessary to bring new capital to crypto from the traditional financial markets. “Iconiq Holding’s aim is to make ICOs and crypto investments accessible to institutional investors, family offices and retail investors,” says Lautenschläger. “Only through such regulated vehicles can we open the doors for the trillions of capital from institutional markets to enter crypto.”
The ICNQ token, initially launched by Iconiq Lab, is also gaining new functionalities. The ICNQ token currently works as a blockchain-based Decentralised VC Club Membership instrument, allowing its holders exclusive access to presales of companies graduating Iconiq Lab’s token sale accelerator program. Now, it can also be used as a voucher instrument, similar to Binance’s BNB token, for payments within the asset management ecosystem Iconiq has created.
“We have successfully positioned the ICNQ token as the token for digital asset management,” says Iconiq Holding CEO, Patrick Lowry. “ICNQ tokens can now be redeemed in our ecosystem for products and services provided by Iconiq Holding companies, including by our digital asset index funds to pay asset management fees to the fund manager, Iconiq Funds. We are excited to add this new value-driver to the ICNQ economy, with many more to come for the benefit of our community.”
Iconiq Holding will be selling up to 10 million remaining ICNQ tokens, with a public token sale taking place on the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange Grid in October 2018. The ICNQ token will apply to be listed on the digital asset exchange, the GBX DAX, after the sale, with more exchanges to come.
