Bethesda, Md.-based ProShares announced today the launch of its Metaverse ETF (ticker: VERS).
The metaverse is an immersive digital world created by the intersection of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and digital assets.
VERS is designed to track an index created by Solactive, the Solactive Metaverse Theme Index, which uses algorithms to attempt to capture the evolving investment opportunity in metaverse development, ProShares said in a press release.
As it currently stands, the index tracks 40 companies across several industries including device makers, data processers, social media firms, gaming companies and others.
Also today, a new European ETF is using Solactive’s metaverse indexes to offer investors exposure to the rapidly growing technology sector. HANetf and ETC Group announced the launch of the first metaverse thematic ETF in Europe, the TFC Group Global Metaverse Equity UCITS ETF (Ticker METR), which tracs the Solactive ETC Group Global Metaverse Index.
According to a press release by Solactive, the Metaverse already encompasses billions of dollars of investible assets and may grow to account for $12 trillion in total consumer expenditure globally, $8.3 trillion in the U.S. alone.
Indexing metaverse stocks has to this point been difficult as there are few publicly traded, pure-play metaverse stocks. Those that do exist are at a much smaller market capitalization than the major technology companies breaking into the space like Microsoft and Meta (the parent company of Facebook). A brief review of existing passive metaverse indexes finds top-10 holdings that include both Meta and Microsoft as well as companies like NVIDIA.
The VERS ETF builds on ProShares existing digital assets offerings, which include BITO, the first bitcoin-linked ETF released in the U.S., which was launched in 2021.