Valkyrie Funds to Offer Crypto SMAs, Challenging Ark and Franklin Templeton

Crypto asset manager Valkyrie Funds said on Tuesday it will offer separately managed account (SMA) aimed at bringing traditional investors exposure to a variety of crypto investment portfolios.

The new SMA service will initially support three active strategies: bitcoin (BTC) alone, bitcoin and ether (BTC), as well as bitcoin, ether, SOL and MATIC. Valkyrie will offer its SMAs to financial advisors, family offices and other financial institutions that can then pitch their clients.

Valkyrie is now the third asset manager to announce crypto SMA plans after Ark Invest and Franklin Templeton, a sign of the maturing crypto product industry with Wall Street involvement. Ark and Franklin Templeton are working with Eaglebrook Advisors for their SMAs.

SMAs are investment products that offer its investors direct ownership over the underlying asset, even though the positions are managed by a firm – in this case Valkyrie. Valkyrie Funds Managing Director John Key told CoinDesk that the SMAs will rely on Valkyrie’s research to rebalance positions for downside protection and upside exposure.

“Other products in general are typically passive or follow some kind of index, so we think we’re really bringing a value added by using our research,” Key said.

The market has not previously seen crypto SMAs because crypto remains “a fairly new asset class," with only a few firms building traditional products with crypto exposure, Key explained. There is a growing section of crypto-curious traditional investors who are hesitant to make direct investments, which means there is a market for SMAs, he noted.

Read more: Investment Management Giant Franklin Templeton to Offer Digital Asset Strategies to Wealth Managers