Wilshire Phoenix to release new institutional fund to provide exposure to bitcoin, partners with Coinbase Custody

Wilshire Phoenix, a New York-based investment and advisory firm, has announced its partnership with Coinbase Custody as it gears up to launch a new institutional fund by the end of 2018.

The fund, which will be organized as a statutory trust, will provide exposure to bitcoin. According to the press release, the fund will not simply hold bitcoin, but employ a “novel approach to mitigate some of the risks” arising from the volatility of bitcoin price. The fund will be capped at $500 million.

Wilshire Phoenix noted that investors together with financial institutions may find it difficult to purchase and hold Bitcoin due to pricing models around Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S GAAP). It said that its patent-pending system may help to solve this issue.

“The fund will not use derivatives or any form of leverage to achieve its objective. This will limit counterparty exposure and the often unnecessary additional fees that are normally associated with these types of financial products or methods,” it said.

First announced in November 2017, Coinbase Custody is Coinbase’s custodian service for institutional investors. It officially started its operations in July.

Sam McIngvale, General Manager of Coinbase Custody Trust, said that Coinbase Custody will offer Wilshire Phoenix clients’ secure storage for digital assets, as well as the ability to perform GAAP-compliant audits whenever the need arises.

Commenting on the partnership, Bill Herrmann, Founder & CEO of Wilshire Phoenix, said that Coinbase Custody will provide the company a best in class platform to securely store digital assets.

“They are steadfast in their commitment to implementing and executing solutions for institutional clients as opposed to merely talking about their future plans to do so. We are excited to have Coinbase in our corner and we look forward to our continued partnership in the months and years to come,” said Herrmann.