Cathie Wood Joins Board of European Crypto Platform Amun Holdings

Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Managment LLC, has announced that she will join the board of Amun Holdings Ltd. The news comes after the CEO personally invested in the operator of 21Shares, a platform specializing in exchange-traded crypto products.

Amun Holdings was established in 2018 by current CEO Hany Rashawn and President Ophelia Snyder. The company rebranded in 2020, changing its name to 21Shares while Amun remains as the parent company and ETP provider. 21Shares’ instruments are listed on Austrian, German, and Swiss exchanges.

“21Shares is forging a new path for crypto ETPs by leading with research and a keen understanding of this developing asset class,” Wood said in a statement.

21Shares’ Short Bitcoin ETP allows investors to bet against bitcoin while its crypto basket index tracks top cryptos by market value. The company has plans to list its first non-Euro product to expand ETP options by up to 30 products in eight countries, Rashwan says.

“Zurich-based Amun’s assets under management have climbed to about $2 billion from $27 million in March 2020,” said Rashwan. “It’s profitable, with $40 million to $50 million in annual revenue generated from both retail and institutional investors such as family offices. We built the company to make crypto as accessible as stocks and have seen tremendous demand for our products,” he concluded.

Wood met with Snyder and Rashwan at a conference in 2019 and says she got to talking about the industry, its structure, and the potential for new tech applications to emerge. Snyder stated that “Cathie’s counsel on critical business strategy, product development, and distribution will be critical as 21Shares expands our global footprint.”

The company’s other backers include Boost VC, Collaborative Ventures, Graham Tuckwell, Morgan Creek, and Quiet Capital.

Wood needs a win after ARK Innovation ETF

While the project between Woods and 21Shares is just getting started, her other ventures are struggling to stay afloat.

It was recently reported that Woods’ flagship exchange-traded fund fell by more than 5% on Monday. This wouldn’t be so terrible if the fund hadn’t also tumbled more than 30% since peaking in February.

The ARK Innovation ETF is an actively managed fund that invests in disruptive technology. Examples include electric vehicles and driverless cars. The fund has fallen more than 16% YTD.

Top holders, including Tesla and Roku, were all in the red as of today. Tesla and Teledoc Heath leading the race toward the bottom, down 5.5% and 7.2% respectively.

Ark’s Autonomous Technology and Robotics ETF is the only fund of Wood’s that is up for the year, seeing a 3% gain.