Deutsche Borse’s platform Xetra to list its first Ether ETPs

Deutsche Borse’s electronic trading platform, Xetra, is preparing to launch its first Ether (ETH)-based exchange-traded products, or ETPs.

According to data from Xetra, the platform is set to debut trading of two Ether ETPs — ETC Group’s Ether exchange-traded commodity, or ETC, product (ZETH) and 21Shares’ Ethereum ETP (AETH) — on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Deutsche Borse told Cointelegraph that the two products will be the first Ether ETPs to ever be listed on Xetra.

Alongside AETH, Xetra will be also listing 21Shares’ Bitcoin Cash (BCH) ETP, the firm’s global head of ETP, Laurent Kssis, told Cointelegraph. “As of tomorrow 21Shares will have 4 ETPs centrally cleared on Xetra which shows how the exchange has put its trust in us and demanded that we step in with more institutional grade ETPs for investors,” Kssis said.

According to an announcement by ETC Group, ZETH was approved by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, Germany’s financial regulator better known as BaFin. The new crypto investment product provides a physically backed, central counterparty-cleared ETC on Ether cryptocurrency that is stored in regulated, institutional-grade custody by BitGo Trust Company, the company said.

The upcoming listings bring three new crypto products to four Bitcoin ETPs already listed on Xetra, including ETC Group’s BTCetc and VanEck’s Vectors Bitcoin ETN, as well as 21Shares’s Bitcoin ETP and Short Bitcoin ETP.

Representing an electronic trading platform operated by Deutsche Borse, Xetra is one of the largest trading platforms in Europe. The company said that Xetra accounts for nearly 90% of the total trading volume of all German stock exchanges, listing over 2,700 tradable securities.

Despite Xetra’s increasing adoption of crypto ETPs, the company is apparently unlikely to start onboarding other types of crypto investment products such as a crypto exchange-traded fund, or ETF, anytime soon. Stephan Kraus, head of Deutsche Borse’s ETF segment, told Cointelegraph that “ETFs on a single cryptocurrency are currently legally not possible” due to the European Union’s regulatory framework for funds.

“For the same reason, there are currently, for example, no gold ETFs listed on EU trading venues,” Kraus stated. “ETPs track the price development of an underlying in a similar way to ETFs, but are legally debt instruments and not funds,” he added.