The Block: Swiss ETP issuer Amun appoints competitor's former CEO as managing director

Exchange-traded product (ETP) issuer Amun announced today that it has hired Laurent Kssis, the former CEO of primary competitor XBT Provider, as its managing director.

The Switzerland-based company was founded less than a year ago, but it has to date listed seven cryptocurrency ETPs, tracking the performance of bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, bitcoin cash, and others. It is also planning to list three more products in the next month, according to Amun CEO Hany Rashwan.

Over the past year, Amun has been on a listing spree of its ETPs on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Switzerland’s largest stock exchange. Meanwhile, XBT Provider, also a ETP issuer based in Sweden, is said to be the first to list a bitcoin-referenced security on a regulated exchange. The company is owned by Coinshares, a London-based digital asset manager.

According to a statement, Kssis joined XBT Provider in 2017 and had grown the firm’s assets under management to over $1 billion during his tenure.

“He will play a pivotal role in our mission to offer investors the highest quality regulated digital asset investment products across Europe. He has a deep network that spans market participants and regulators across Europe, with particular strength in Scandinavia,” said Rashwan in the statement.

Elsewhere in the U.S., asset managers struggled to get their exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. VanEck recently withdrew its ETF proposal while Bitwise's proposal was rejected on Wednesday.