Bitwise has rolled out a new exchange-traded product (ETP) on Germany’s Deutsche Börse Xetra, giving investors a simple way to gain exposure to NEAR, an AI-focused blockchain, while also earning staking rewards.
According to a press release shared with crypto.news, this marks Bitwise’s first NEAR Staking ETP, aimed at both institutional and retail investors looking to diversify into digital assets.
Traded under the ticker NEAR and ISIN DE000A4A5GV2, the Bitwise NEAR Protocol Staking ETP is fully backed and issued in Germany. It provides investors with direct exposure to NEAR’s price performance, along with the added benefit of earning staking yields. The product is designed to automatically accumulate daily staking rewards, making it a hassle-free way for investors to tap into staking income without managing the technical complexities themselves.
This launch is Bitwise’s fourth ETP in Europe, expanding its European Total Return product suite, which already includes the Bitwise Ethereum Staking ETP. However, while the Ethereum Staking ETP is active in Europe, its planned U.S. debut has faced delays after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced on July 1 that it would extend its review of Bitwise’s proposal.
An Easy Path to Staking Rewards
One of the key advantages of Bitwise’s NEAR Staking ETP is that it allows investors to earn staking rewards without needing to hold NEAR directly or worry about using third-party wallets or validators. Instead, the underlying NEAR tokens are securely held in cold storage by an institutional custodian.
The ETP also offers daily liquidity, trading on regulated stock exchanges without lock-up periods or manual delegation requirements. This provides a level of convenience and flexibility not always available to individual investors who might otherwise stake tokens on their own.
Bradley Duke, Head of Europe at Bitwise, expressed excitement about launching the new product in partnership with NEAR:
“The Bitwise NEAR Staking ETP gives investors exposure to price movements in the NEAR token as well as compounded return from staking rewards all with Bitwise’s best-in-class ETP structure,” Duke said in his statement.
NEAR Protocol: Powering AI and Blockchain Innovation
NEAR Protocol is a layer-1 blockchain platform launched in 2020, built to make advanced technologies like artificial intelligence accessible and practical for on-chain users. It tackles key blockchain challenges, such as slow transaction speeds and high costs, through its use of sharding technology, which allows the network to process many transactions simultaneously.
Developers working on NEAR also benefit from customizable smart contracts, enabling them to build multichain financial applications securely without relying on bridges or wrapped tokens.
Bitwise’s latest ETP gives investors a chance to ride both the growth of AI and blockchain innovation all while earning staking rewards in a regulated and convenient format.
