Wall Street’s Altcoin Play: Bitwise and 21Shares Push Altcoin ETFs Amid Regulatory Delays

By: bitcoin ethereum news|2025/05/08 14:00:10

Two major players in the digital asset investment space, Bitwise and 21Shares, have made fresh moves to diversify beyond flagship cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, signaling growing institutional interest in layer-1 protocols and platform tokens. 21Shares Debuts Cronos ETP in Europe 21Shares announced the launch of a new exchange-traded product (ETP) providing direct exposure to Cronos (CRO), the native token of Crypto.com’s blockchain ecosystem. The product began trading on May 6 across Euronext’s Paris and Amsterdam exchanges. This marks one of the first regulated, exchange-listed vehicles offering European investors access to Cronos, further expanding 21Shares’ portfolio of altcoin ETPs. The move underscores 21Shares’ strategy of targeting niche blockchain assets with strong market potential and follows a series of similar product launches over the past year aimed at capturing the growing European appetite for diversified crypto exposure. Bitwise Files for NEAR ETF in the U.S. Meanwhile, Bitwise took a significant step in the U.S. market with its April 24 filing to establish a Bitwise NEAR ETF Trust in Delaware. The proposed fund would track the market price of NEAR, the native token of the NEAR Protocol—a layer-1 blockchain network focused on decentralized applications and scalability solutions. According to the firm’s S-1 registration, the ETF intends to provide exposure to NEAR’s value while deducting operational expenses and liabilities. Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC has been named custodian, tasked with safeguarding the trust’s holdings, managing its NEAR accounts, and facilitating token transfers. Further Details To Be Announced While specifics such as the ETF’s ticker, management fees, and listing exchange remain undisclosed, the filing represents an early procedural milestone. Bitwise must still submit a 19b-4 form to formally trigger the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) review process. An excerpt from the filing notes, “The Trust’s investment objective is to seek to provide exposure to the value of NEAR held by the Trust, less the expenses of the Trust’s operations and other liabilities.” Expanding the Altcoin ETF Market This latest development adds NEAR to Bitwise’s growing roster of altcoin-focused ETFs. The firm, already offering products tied to Bitcoin and Ethereum, is pursuing approval for funds linked to other major cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), and Aptos (APT). A crypto market analyst commented on X, “Bitwise is betting big on altcoin legitimacy. Wall Street exposure to L1s is getting real.” The remark highlights a broader industry trend as asset managers look to capitalize on increasing institutional interest in alternative blockchain networks. Regulatory Outlook Remains Uncertain Despite a more favorable regulatory environment under the Trump administration, the SEC has maintained a cautious stance toward altcoin-based ETFs. The agency recently delayed decisions on several applications, including those for XRP and DOGE products, with verdicts now expected by mid-June 2025. This pattern of regulatory hesitation underscores the complexities of expanding the crypto ETF market beyond established assets, even as asset managers continue to position themselves for eventual approvals. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice Source: https://cryptodaily.co.uk/2025/05/wall-streets-altcoin-play-bitwise-and-21shares-push-altcoin-etfs-amid-regulatory-delays

Currently, most Web3 projects are still in the stage of functional fragmentation, often focusing only on a single aspect, such as IP asset tokenization, transaction functionality, or a simple incentive model. This structural dispersion has become a key bottleneck hindering the industry's scale application.

BeatSwap's approach is more integrated, integrating multiple core modules into the same system, including:

· IP authentication and on-chain registration

· Authorization-based revenue sharing mechanism

· User-engagement-driven incentive system

· Transaction and liquidity infrastructure

Through the above integration, the platform builds an end-to-end closed-loop path, allowing IP rights to complete a full cycle of "creation, use, and monetization" within the same ecosystem.

Expanding from Web3 to a broader market: Restructuring the music industry's supply-demand structure

BeatSwap is not limited to existing crypto users but is attempting to take the global music industry as a starting point, actively creating new market demand. Its core strategies include:

Exploring and incubating music creators (Artist discovery)

Building a fan community

Igniting IP-centric content consumption demand

The current global music industry is valued at around $260 billion, with over 2 billion digital music users. This means that the potential market corresponding to the tokenization and financialization of IP far exceeds the traditional crypto user base.

In this context, BeatSwap positions itself at the intersection of "real-world content demand" and "on-chain infrastructure," attempting to bridge the structural gap between content production and financial flow.

"Space" to Launch in Q2 2026: Building the Core of SocialFi

BeatSwap's upcoming core product "Space" is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2026. This product is defined as the SocialFi layer in the ecosystem, aiming to directly connect creators with users and achieve deep integration with other platform modules.

Key designs include:

A fan-centric interactive mechanism

Exposure and distribution logic based on $BTX staking

User paths connected to DeFi and liquidity structures

Thus, a complete user behavior loop is formed within the platform: Discovery → Participation → Consumption → Rewards → Trading

$BTX Token Mechanism: Evolving from an Incentive Tool to a Value Carrier

$BTX is designed to be a core utility asset within the ecosystem, rather than just a simple incentive token, with its value directly tied to platform activity and IP use cases.

Main features include:

· Yield distribution based on on-chain authorized actions

· Value reflection based on IP usage and user engagement dynamics

· Support for staking and DeFi participation mechanisms

· Value growth driven by ecosystem expansion

With the increased frequency of IP use, the utility and value support of $BTX will enhance simultaneously, helping alleviate the "disconnect between value and utility" issue present in traditional Web3 token models to some extent.

Accelerating Global Exchange Layout: Enhancing Liquidity and Accessibility

Currently, $BTX has been listed on several mainstream exchanges, including:

Binance Alpha

Gate

MEXC

OKX Boost

As the launch of "Space" approaches, BeatSwap is actively pursuing more exchange listings to further enhance liquidity and global accessibility, laying a foundation for future market expansion.

Beyond Web3: Aiming for a Larger-Scale Integration of Content and Finance Markets

BeatSwap's goal is no longer limited to the traditional Web3 narrative but aims to target over 2 billion digital music users and a trillion KRW-scale content market.

By integrating content creators, users, capital, and liquidity into a blockchain framework centered around IP rights, BeatSwap is striving to build a next-generation infrastructure focused on "IP tokenization."

Conclusion

BeatSwap integrates IP authentication, authorization distribution, incentive mechanism, transaction system, and market construction to establish a unified structure that bridges the full lifecycle path of IP rights.

With the launch of the Q2 2026 "Space," the project is expected to become a key infrastructure connecting content and finance in the IP-RWA (Real World Assets) track.

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