The surging growth of NFTs and DeFi is putting pressure on the Ethereum blockchain, raising fees; Polygon offers a solution.

After the Bitwise Asset Management boilerplate, add the "RISK DISCLOSURE AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION" section.

The updated release reads:

BITWISE LAUNCHES POLYGON (MATIC) FUND, OFFERING EXPOSURE TO LEADING ETHEREUM-SCALING SOLUTION

The surging growth of NFTs and DeFi is putting pressure on the Ethereum blockchain, raising fees; Polygon offers a solution.

Bitwise Asset Management, the world’s largest crypto index fund manager with over $1.5 billion in AUM,¹ today announced the launch of the Bitwise Polygon (MATIC) Fund. The strategy seeks to give investors exposure to MATIC, the native cryptoasset of the fast-growing Polygon platform, through a professionally managed investment vehicle.

“For years, the excitement around crypto’s most promising use cases, including DeFi and NFTs, has been muted by the fact that Ethereum simply isn’t built to handle it all yet,” said Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise. “Many are working on Ethereum competitors to solve this, but Polygon has seen breakthrough traction with a uniquely complementary solution that boosts Ethereum’s speed and efficiency. Investors have been asking about this rising star. With the new Bitwise Polygon Fund launching today, we’re excited to continue helping investors gain access to the expanding set of opportunities emerging in crypto.”

The Polygon platform allows developers to build applications and new blockchains that integrate with Ethereum, benefiting from its network effects while avoiding its transaction bottlenecks and higher costs. For example, an NFT transfer that would cost about $20 to execute on Ethereum costs just over $0.01 on Polygon.² So far, more than 1,000 applications have chosen to build on Polygon, including market-leading NFT and DeFi apps OpenSea and Aave.³ In early October, the number of daily active user addresses for Polygon even briefly overtook that of Ethereum.⁴ As of October 13, Polygon had a market cap of around $8 billion, compared to Ethereum’s roughly $400 billion.⁵

The new Bitwise Polygon Fund is currently available to accredited investors for private placement subscription with a $10,000 minimum investment and weekly redemptions. The manager intends to pursue public quotation of the fund with a ticker through OTCQX when and if it is eligible. The custodian of the Bitwise Polygon Fund is Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC, the world’s largest crypto custodian.⁶

The launch of the Polygon fund follows several other launches by Bitwise earlier this year, including the Bitwise Uniswap (UNI) Fund, the Bitwise Aave (AAVE) Fund, the Bitwise 10 ex Bitcoin Crypto Index Fund, the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (BITQ), and the Bitwise DeFi Crypto Index Fund.

Bitwise today serves hundreds of RIAs, financial advisors, multifamily offices, hedge funds, high-net-worth individuals, and other institutional investors with a nationwide business development team.

About Bitwise Asset Management

Based in San Francisco, Bitwise is one of the largest and fastest-growing cryptoasset managers. As of October 15, 2021, Bitwise managed more than $1.5 billion across an expanding suite of investment solutions. The firm is known for managing the world’s largest crypto index fund (OTCQX: BITW) and pioneering products spanning bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, and crypto-focused equity indexes. Bitwise focuses on partnering with financial advisors and investment professionals to provide quality education and research. The team at Bitwise combines expertise in technology with decades of experience in traditional asset management and indexing, coming from firms including BlackRock, Blackstone, Facebook and Google, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Bitwise is backed by leading institutional investors and asset management executives, and has been profiled in Institutional Investor, CNBC, Barron’s, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

RISK DISCLOSURE AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Carefully consider the investment objectives, risk factors, and charges and expenses of any Bitwise investment product before investing. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. There is no guarantee or assurance that the methodology used by Bitwise or any of the Bitwise investment products will result in any Bitwise investment product achieving positive investment returns or outperforming other investment products. There is no guarantee or assurance that an investor’s investment objectives will be met through an investment into any Bitwise investment product, and an investor may lose money. Investors into any Bitwise investment product should be willing to accept a high degree of volatility in the price of such investment product and the possibility of significant losses. Bitwise investment products involve a substantial degree of risk and are available only to institutional and individual accredited investors.

Certain of the Bitwise investment products may be subject to the risks associated with investing in cryptoassets, including cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens. Because cryptoassets are a new technological innovation with a limited history, they are a highly speculative asset. Future regulatory actions or policies may limit the ability to sell, exchange or use a cryptoasset. The price of a cryptoasset may be impacted by the transactions of a small number of holders of such cryptoasset. Cryptoassets may decline in popularity, acceptance or use, which may impact their price. The technology relating to cryptoassets and blockchain is new and developing. Currently, there are a limited number of publicly listed or quoted companies for which cryptoassets and blockchain technology represent an attributable and significant revenue stream.

The opinions expressed herein are intended to provide insight or education and are not intended as individual investment advice. Bitwise does not represent that this information is accurate and complete and it should not be relied upon as such.

This material represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results. This information should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding the funds or any security in particular. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Diversification may not protect against market risk. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market.

Bitwise may attempt to have shares of its investment products quoted on a secondary market. However, there is no guarantee this will be successful. Although the shares of certain Bitwise investment products have been approved for trading on a secondary market, investors in any other Bitwise investment product should not assume that the shares will ever obtain such an approval due to a variety of factors, including questions that regulators such as the SEC, FINRA or other regulatory bodies may have regarding the investment product. Shareholders of such investment products should be prepared to bear the risk of investment in the shares indefinitely.

This press release is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal, nor shall there be any sale of any security in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction. The offer and sale of these investment products have not been registered with or approved or disapproved of by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the securities commission or regulatory authority of any state or foreign jurisdiction.

¹ As of October 15, 2021.

² Source: https://defi-lab.xyz/polygon. October 12, 2021. Transaction estimate data refreshes regularly.

³ Source: https://polygon.technology

⁴ Source: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/10/04/polygon-flips-ethereum-on-active-user-addresses/

⁵ Source: https://coinmarketcap.com

⁶ Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/how-coinbase-quietly-became-the-worlds-biggest-bitcoin-bank/

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