Invest2 publishers3 min readPublished
21Shares opens Europe's first Zcash ETP with 5,000 units on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam
The fund charges 2.5% a year on about $100,000 of day-one assets held with BitGo, four weeks after Grayscale's US Zcash ETF began trading on NYSE Arca. The European money has not shown up yet.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- 21Shares listed Europe's first Zcash exchange-traded product on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam on Sept. 22, physically backed, trading as ZCASH and charging a 2.5% annual management fee.
- The fund opened with 5,000 securities outstanding at a net asset value of $20.04 a unit and about $100,000 of assets under management, according to 21Shares' own factsheet.
- Grayscale's US Zcash ETF, ZCSH, splits 3-for-1 with a Sept. 28 record date and trades on a post-split basis from Sept. 30.
- ZEC's market capitalisation is near $27.5 billion, the ninth-largest among crypto assets, according to Decrypt.
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Why it matters
- cost Holders pay 2.5% a year, so the fund has to reach $4 million of assets before that fee produces $100,000 of annual revenue for 21Shares.
- decision A European brokerage client now chooses between paying 2.5% a year and self-custodying a coin that is gone for good if the keys are mismanaged.
- contradiction Decrypt had ZEC sliding about 6.6% to roughly $1,522 on Wednesday while Cryptopolitan had it near $1,629 and up about 7% in 24 hours, so launch-week price direction is not something a buyer can take from the coverage.
- precedent A shielded-asset wrapper can be listed on Euronext before any demand for it exists, and the next long-tail token needs only a custodian willing to hold it and a shelf fee.
Grayscale's ZCSH has traded on NYSE Arca since Aug. 25 and holds close to $890 million [6][8]. The Euronext product holds $100,200, being 5,000 units at a net asset value of $20.04 [3][1]. The American fund is about 8,900 times the size [4].
Most of that gap is not money anyone wired this year. Grayscale has taken in more than $233 million, so about $657 million of the $890 million, roughly three quarters of it, came from somewhere other than disclosed creations [8][5]. ZCSH was a Zcash trust for nine years before it converted [6], and ZEC is up more than 2,700% this year [10]. Cryptopolitan puts the fund's net assets closer to $917 million, $27 million above the figure Decrypt used [9][8].
The fee pays 21Shares about $2,505 a year on its day-one assets [2]. The companion product listed the same day, tracking ether.fi's ETHFI governance token, charges the same 2.5% [5]. Decrypt argued the fee covers custody of an asset institutional custodians handle far less often than bitcoin or ether [20]; the identical price on an unrelated restaking governance token suggests 2.5% is what 21Shares charges for a listing off its main shelf. Decrypt said the fee sits well above what most bitcoin and ether ETPs charge on the same exchanges, and did not publish those fees [19].
"Zcash offers something truly distinct by combining Bitcoin's capped supply with optional privacy and future-proof cryptography," said Jasmin Muelhaupt, director of financial product development at 21shares [14]. The firm is a subsidiary of the prime broker FalconX [15]. Coinholders voted 98.9% last week to keep the Bitcoin-style halving schedule over smoother issuance [17].
About 4.9 million coins, more than 30% of all ZEC ever created, now sit in shielded pools, the highest share the network has recorded [16]. Against the 21 million cap Zcash inherited from Bitcoin's code, that is 23% of maximum supply [18][6], and the 30% share implies roughly 16.3 million coins issued so far [7].
In my view this is an option on demand that nobody has exercised. The counter is distribution: European wrappers get bought when bank platforms and fund selectors add the line, and that takes months, which is why Grayscale's second-largest single session since inception was a $46.56 million inflow in September rather than in August [9]. A third possibility is that the 2.5% is itself the obstacle, because a fee that size is hard to defend in a selection meeting once a cheaper European Zcash wrapper lists.
I would abandon the option-on-demand reading if ZCASH units outstanding move from 5,000 into six figures while ZEC is flat or falling. That would be new money choosing the wrapper, not a rising coin price flattering the assets.
What to watch
- Whether ZEC holds the support above $1,440 that Cryptopolitan flagged after its pullback to $1,429, since the fee base moves with the coin.