Bitcoin Forum

One of the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase, has expressed that it will be switching off its index-fund, a wealthy investor fund to concentrate on retail investors.

The index-fund was launched in March this year with the aim of offering “accredited investors and institutions exposure to the digital currencies trading on its exchange.” But, as reported by The Block, the index fund which investors were supposed to invest a minimum of 250,000 U.S dollars “failed to attract the necessary number of clients, raising less dollars than the firm expected.”

However, Coinbase will reroute the energy used in maintaining the index fund to enhance the Coinbase Bundle, a new retail-focused product.

The new retail product enables a ‘bundle’ of cryptocurrencies to be purchased from the exchange in one sweep from as low as 25 U.S dollars and with no accreditation required.

While speaking to Coindesk, a Coinbase spokesperson said: “After assessing demand from retail, accredited and institutional investors, Coinbase has decided to shut down Coinbase Index Fund.” The fund will be officially unavailable at the end of October.

Even after closing the fund, Coinbase is still on the look-out for ways to bring institutions to the cryptocurrency space. This has been manifested by the hiring of Jonathan Kellner, CEO, Instinet, who will be on the frontline onboarding wealthy and institutional clients to the cryptocurrency train starting from 2019.

Additionally, Coinbase has added the ZRX token which can only be accessed by those on Coinbase Pro. The firm has however not given any timelines as to when the new token will be availed to retail cryptocurrency investors or those using the Coinbase mobile application to engage with digital currencies.

Do you think Coinbase’s move to switch off the wealthy investor fund to concentrate on retail investors will bring more people to invest in crypto given that with $25 you have a bundle?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.