Institutional Goes Exotic: Valkyrie’s Multi-Coin Trust Eyes Staking Rewards

Valkyrie Investments is pitching its institutional clients on a multi-asset crypto fund that kicks a portion of staking rewards back to investors.

The Valkyrie Multi-Coin Trust (VMCT) already has $15 million in commitments, Chief Investment Officer Steve McClurg told CoinDesk. Created in response to institutional demand (it’s only open to accredited investors) he said VCMT is generating inbounds from big banks and even insurance companies.

What they’re calling about is a bit more complicated than a passive buy-and-hold fund. VCMT is an actively managed, multi-protocol fund geared toward generating staking rewards – up to 6% a year.

“People have already made their money in Ethereum and they want the next thing,” McClurg said. “That's really what this represents.”

Other investment managers including Arca have previously launched yield-generating crypto products as the industry finds creative ways to generate returns in a sideways-trading market.

It opens with a basket of layer 1 tokens: avalanche (AVAX), binance (BNB), cosmos (ATOM), helium (HNT), terra (LUNA), polygon (MATIC) and zilliqa (ZIL). Monthly rebalances that McClurg said will be part “holistic,” part metrics-driven, could shake up the basket of baselayer tokens – minus ETH.

VMCT’s basket includes tokens from blockchains that reward holders who post their bags as collateral in securing the network, a process called proof-of-stake. Valkyrie runs part of this staking operation itself to reduce fees that reduce bottom-line yields.

Even the go-between dollar stablecoin generates returns, said McClurg. He said Valkyrie picked Gemini’s GUSD “because there’s a very attractive yield.”