21shares Ditches the Autopilot: Active Crypto ETFs Grab the Steering Wheel

Crypto asset manager 21shares is declaring the age of plain-vanilla, copy-paste ETFs officially cringe. In a chat with Cointelegraph, President Duncan Moir makes the case that a wild, nascent asset class practically begs for some active management to wrangle it. The firm's approach is like a crypto hedge fund lite, mixing deep-dive token analysis with macro-level quant and discretionary moves to dodge bullets and chase alpha.

To execute this grand plan, 21shares has been on a hiring spree, bulking up its trading and portfolio squads with specialists who actually know what they're doing. The result? A stacked team prepped to launch what they're calling "strong" actively managed products—because "mediocre" doesn't exactly sell in a bear market.

For a sense of the potential prize, look at the trad-fi world: active ETFs globally were sitting on nearly $1.8 trillion by the end of 2025, per Morningstar and GS Asset Management. That's a massive, juicy target for the crypto side to ape into.

Getting acquired by FalconX back in October is like strapping a rocket to 21shares' product development, especially for cooking up more complex recipes. Moir points out regional degen tendencies: U.S. investors are still mostly glued to the blue-chip coins, while European institutions, already bag-holding BTC and ETH, are now sniffing around newer assets and the application layer beyond the basic L1s.

Catering to that yield-hungry European crowd, 21shares just dropped a European ETP linked to Strategy's preferred stock (STRC), which is basically a fancy, high-yield instrument tied to its Bitcoin-centric capital play. Early demand has been "strong" across several regions, proving that degens everywhere want yield-generating assets they can buy without leaving their traditional brokerage apps.

The whole crypto ETP/ETF scene is leveling up, and staking has become the must-have accessory. Grayscale started handing out staking rewards on its Ether ETPs in October, making them the first U.S. spot crypto ETFs to do so, with Solana staking waiting in the approval queue. Not to be outdone, BlackRock launched a Nasdaq-listed Ethereum product in March that bundles spot exposure with staking, pulling in a cool $15.5 million in volume on day one.

When deciding what to launch next, 21shares uses a simple three-part filter: its own internal research, client demand signals, and macro trends. Early alpha from the research nerds and direct feedback from institutional whales helps decide whether to launch a hyper-niche single-token product or a broader thematic vehicle.

A prime example of this strategy in action is their Bitcoin-and-gold ETP, which after four years is now cross-listed in London. Moir shills it as one of Europe's top-performing risk-adjusted ETPs, arguing that pairing digital gold with the physical stuff is the ultimate boomer-meets-degen diversification play.

The bottom line? 21shares is all-in on the bet that active strategies are the next major wave for crypto ETFs, as the market graduates from simply tracking price to actually trying to beat it.