European asset manager 21Shares listed physically backed exchange-traded products tracking Zcash (ZEC) and ether.fi (ETHFI) on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam on September 22, extending regulated European access to the privacy coin weeks after its U.S. debut. The 21Shares Zcash ETP, which trades under the ticker ZCASH, is the first European exchange-traded product tied to the privacy-focused cryptocurrency, while the ether.fi ETP, ticker ETHFI, tracks the governance and utility token of the liquid restaking protocol.
What the two products hold
Both products are physically backed, meaning the issuer holds the underlying cryptoassets with institutional custodians rather than replicating returns through derivatives. The Zcash product carries ISIN CH1608218801 and the ether.fi product ISIN CH1608218819, according to 21Shares’ product pages. Each charges a 2.5 percent annual product fee and trades in euros in Paris and U.S. dollars in Amsterdam. The key information documents name custodians that include Coinbase Custody, Zodia Custody, Anchorage Digital and BitGo, with BitGo listed as the custodian in the current product documentation.
The Zcash ETP follows the U.S. ETF
The listing extends Zcash’s reach into European regulated markets weeks after Grayscale brought a Zcash ETF to NYSE Arca, giving the privacy coin listed investment vehicles on both sides of the Atlantic. Zcash offers optional shielded transactions that limit what is publicly exposed onchain, and its 21 million coin maximum supply gives it a scarcity structure that resembles bitcoin at the issuance level. The launch arrives as issuers push beyond bitcoin and ether into narrower asset niches, with the 2.5 percent fee sitting well above the temporary fee waivers 21Shares applies to its core bitcoin and Ethereum products.
Why ether.fi is in the mix
The ether.fi product packages exposure to a token whose underlying protocol has expanded well beyond its liquid restaking roots. ether.fi has moved into tokenized stocks, lending and payments, and 21Shares argues the protocol’s revenue mix now reaches beyond staking alone. The protocol held roughly $4.9 billion in assets in September, according to DeFiLlama data cited by the issuer.
Both ETPs began trading with 5,000 securities outstanding each, per 21Shares’ product pages, with early assets under management near $100,000 apiece. For investors, both products remove the need to open an exchange account or manage private keys, offering exposure through a conventional brokerage account instead.
