Crypto.com and Canary Capital to launch US CRO fund

Crypto.com and asset manager Canary Capital are launching a US investment fund designed to provide exposure to the Cronos blockchain’s native token, CRO, the cryptocurrency exchange said in a statement.

The Canary CRO Trust will hold the Cronos (CRO) token in a regulated fund wrapper, Crypto.com said, adding that the trust is not an exchange-traded fund (ETF) and is only available to accredited investors. 

Creating regulated funds such as CRO Trust is part of Crypto.com’s plan for “further mainstreaming crypto,” Eric Anziani, president and chief operating officer of Crypto.com, said in a statement.

In March, the crypto exchange partnered with Trump Media & Technology Group, a company affiliated with US President Donald Trump, to launch a series of Trump-branded ETFs, including one holding CRO.

The Trump Media ETFs are still awaiting approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has not yet authorized any CRO ETFs for US trading, Crypto.com said.

Related: 21Shares launches ETP for Crypto.com's Cronos token

Cronos is a layer-1 blockchain network affiliated with Crypto.com. The chain is designed to integrate with the Ethereum and Cosmos ecosystems and support decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other Web3 applications.

The chain has a total value locked (TVL) of nearly $440 million, according to data from DefiLlama. Its most popular application is VVS Finance, a DeFi platform for token swaps and yield farming.

The CRO token has a market capitalization of roughly $880 million as of May 19, according to Cointelegraph’s market data. 

Since Trump took office in January, he has signaled a more crypto-friendly approach to regulation, prompting asset managers to seek to list roughly 70 new crypto ETFs.

In May, asset manager VanEck filed to list an ETF tied to another exchange-affiliated token, BNB Chain’s native BNB. The chain is affiliated with Binance, the world’s largest centralized exchange.

The same month, 21Shares launched an exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe offering exposure to Crypto.com’s CRO token. 

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