Coinbase Launches Coinbase Index Fund for Accredited Investors

Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, announced Tuesday (March 6) the launch of the Coinbase Index Fund.

In a blog post, Reuben Bramanathan, product lead at Coinbase, said the Coinbase Index Fund, the first of its kind, gives investors access to all of the digital tokens listed on GDAX, Coinbase’s exchange. The tokens are weighted by market capitalization — and if a new asset is listed on the exchange, it automatically gets added to the Coinbase Index Fund.

“Index funds have changed the way that many people think about investing. By providing diversified exposure to a broad range of assets, index funds enable investors to track the performance of an entire asset class, rather than having to select individual assets. We’re excited to give our customers the ability to invest in the potential of blockchain-based digital assets as a whole,” wrote Bramanathan in the post.

Coinbase said the fund will be available only to U.S. residents who are accredited investors or those individuals who have an annual income of $200,000 or more or a net worth of more than $1 million. Bramanathan said the company plans to launch more funds that will be available to all sorts of investors and encompass more digital assets.

The launch of the Coinbase Index Fund comes at the same time that the cryptocurrency exchange is mulling acquisitions. According to a recent report in Fortune, to meet that end it has hired LinkedIn’s former VP of Corporate Development Emilie Choi. Choi took the helm as Coinbase’s new VP of Corporate and Business Development this week. While at LinkedIn, Choi was involved in more than 40 acquisitions, such as the company’s $1.5 billion purchase of Lynda in 2015.

As Coinbase is considering “quite a number” of acquisitions, Choi will evaluate deals in the pipeline and look for new targets. “If you ask anyone in [Silicon] Valley, she is absolutely top of her field in business development,” Coinbase’s COO Asiff Hirji told Fortune. “Given how rapidly the [cryptocurrency] space is unfolding, given the breadth of opportunities in front of Coinbase, we feel very fortunate having someone like Emilie with us and helping us figure out how to get those deals done.”