FTSE Russell And 21shares Announce Global Benchmark Partnership Across US, European, And Australian ETP Suites - Strategic Initiative Standardizes Index Architecture Across 21shares’ Worldwide Product Lineup, Building On Transitions Successfully Completed In Europe And Australia Earlier This Year

FTSE Russell, LSEG’s global index provider, and 21shares, one of the world’s leading issuers of crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), today announced a comprehensive global partnership to evolve and standardize the underlying benchmark index framework for 21shares’ exchange-traded product (ETP) suites across the United States, Europe, and Australia.

Designed to deliver a unified pricing and governance framework to digital asset investors worldwide, 21shares will officially transition select US-listed single-asset exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to FTSE Russell digital asset indices at market open tomorrow, 27 August 2026. This is the latest stage of 21share’s global rollout, as the firm has already successfully transitioned its core European and Australian product lineups – including flagship Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana ETPs – to FTSE Russell benchmarks.

The products transitioning on 27 August are the following:

This benchmark evolution serves solely as an infrastructure enhancement: underlying asset exposures, fund legal structures, custodians, primary exchange listings, and fee schedules remain completely unchanged across all products.

“FTSE Russell represents one of the pillars of global financial infrastructure, with approximately $20 trillion in assets benchmarked to its indices worldwide, including iconic traditional benchmarks like the Russell 2000 and the FTSE 100,” said Duncan Moir, President at 21shares. “With global crypto ETP and ETF assets now surpassing $106 billion[Note 1], bringing FTSE Russell's established digital asset index expertise to a broader range of investment products, from index architecture into digital assets, represents a major structural milestone for us and the wider industry. Crypto has transitioned into a mainstream component of multi-asset portfolios, and this transition equips institutional allocators, pension funds, and wealth managers with the exact same benchmark integrity they rely on across traditional capital markets.”

 "We are delighted to partner with 21Shares as investor demand for digital asset solutions continues to grow," said Fiona Bassett, CEO, FTSE Russell. "Digital asset innovation has been an important area of focus for FTSE Russell for a number of years, and this partnership builds on our commitment to developing robust, rules-based benchmarks that meet the evolving needs of investors. By combining our index expertise and governance framework with 21shares' leadership in digital asset investing, we are helping bring greater transparency and confidence to this rapidly developing market."

Key details of the partnership:

• Global benchmark consistency: establishes a harmonized, institutional index framework across 21shares’ ETF and ETP lineups in the US, Europe, and Australia.
• Proven multi-region rollout: expands on the benchmark transitions for core European and Australian ETPs (including BTC, ETH, and SOL products) successfully completed in March 2026.
• Institutional pricing integrity: leverages FTSE Russell’s leading vetting methodologies to capture accurate pricing from real buyers and sellers.
• Continuous track record: all transitions are implemented on a prospective basis, ensuring historical performance and NAV data remain a single, unbroken track record for investors.