Invesco – the US fund manager with close to US$1.5tn in assets under management – has launched a metaverse fund to tap into what it predicts will be a multi-trillion-dollar industry by the end of the decade.
The fund invests in small, medium and large-cap companies focused on next-gen operating systems, peripherals, blockchain networks, interoperability systems and other related technologies.
Investor information seen by Proactive shows that the Luxembourg-registered 'Invesco Mestaverse Fund' has a six-out-of-seven risk/reward profile, placing it in the high-risk-high-reward category "due to the rises and falls of its price or simulated data in the past".
The fund has a one-off 5% entry charge and a 1.25% ongoing charge and specific portfolio companies have not been disclosed.
According to Decrypt, an Investco spokesman said the fund size was approximately US$30mln.
Invesco's fund manager Tony Roberts predicts that "virtual and augmented reality could deliver a £1.4 trillion boost to the global economy" by 2030.
Invesco's crypto appetiteInvesco launched a string of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded products (ETPs) in the past year, including a €70mln (£59mln) Bitcoin spot ETP on German securities exchange Deutsche Börse (ETR:DB1) in partnership with CoinShares.
Invesco Physical Bitcoin ETP (BTIC), as it is called, was listed in November 2021 before the market crashed some US$2tn, thus performance to date has been an underwhelming -58%.
While Invesco also launched a range of crypto-exposed ETFs in the US, regulatory rules prohibit ETFs from providing directed exposure to digital assets.
The continual snubbing of spot-Bitcoin funds by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is a source of frustration for crypto-positive fund managers, especially given the regulator's approval of a short-Bitcoin fund in June.
Digital asset funds go negativeMajor digital asset investment products including CoinShares, 21Shares, ProShares, 3iQ and others saw major in flows throughout July and August, as investors looked at a bottomed-out market as a decent entry opportunity.
However, the past two weeks saw a return to net outflows driven by low investor participation in Bitcoin funds, according to a CoinShares report posted on Monday.
Ethereum-based vehicles remain the most popular for now, as the lead up to The Merge galvanises investors.
Total assets under management across all digital asset investment products is slightly below US$30bn.