A publicly traded, 10-year-old, European asset manager is preparing to snap up a three-fund U.S. business near Nashville.

Leah Wald Valkyrie Funds LLC CEO, Co-Founder

On January 12, Jean-Marie Mognetti, CEO of CoinShares International Limited, and Leah Wald, CEO of Valkyrie Funds LLC [profile], confirmed that Saint Helier, Jersey-based CoinShares has agreed to buy Valkyrie Funds from Brentwood, Tennessee-based Valkyrie Investments Inc.. Valkyrie Funds is a three-fund suite with about $173 million in AUM, and CoinShares currently has about $4.5 billion in AUM; both firms specialize in investing in digital assets, aka cryptocurrency.

The Valkyrie and CoinShares teams have not publicly revealed the timeline, pricing, or terms of the pending deal. A spokesperson for CoinShares was not able to comment. A Valkyrie spokesperson declined to comment until the deal is closed.

The possibility of a Valkyrie-CoinShares deal has been an imminent possibility for at least a couple of months. Back in November, Mognetti and Wald revealed that CoinShares had purchased an "exclusive option" to buy Valkyrie Funds. That option expires on March 31.

Mognetti notes that CoinShares has come "to dominate the European market" for "regulated digital asset products," where the firm's crypto ETPs now account for more than 40 percent of the AUM of such products. He describes the Valkyrie deal as a way to extend CoinShares to the U.S., "offering unparalled access to regulated digital asset products to American investors."

"This expansion is a clear statement of our appetite for acquisition to support our ambition to be a global leader in the digital asset space," Mognetti states.

Wald and Mognetti unveiled the deal the day after Valkyrie's long-awaited spot bitcoin ETP, the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund (BRRR), finally launched on the Nasdaq. BRRR is one of the 11 spot bitcoin ETPs initially blessed by the SEC, which are the first such products to become available in the U.S. Indeed, the CoinShares team says that their decision to exercise their option to buy Valkyrie "comes as a direct result" of the SEC approving BRRR.

As of yesterday, the 11-day-old BRRR had grown to $79 million in AUM, already making it the biggest fund in the Valkyrie Funds family. The two other funds, the Valkyrie Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF (BTF) and the Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) are both about two years old. (The CoinShares deal does not appear to involve Valkyrie Investments' other offerings, which include: a trio of cryptocurrency trusts, a hedge fund, and SMAs.)

Wald lauds CoinShares as "a premier player in the digital asset space."

"We're excited to see how they continue advancing the space by leveraging Valkyrie's team and expertise," Wald states. "CoinShares' renowned capabilities and proven success in combination with our strengths promise to propel us forward in the American digital asset investment sphere, particularly within the digital asset ETF market."

"Being part of such a strong and successful group marks a promising new chapter for us," Wald states. 

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