Virtune launches product tracking 13 crypto assets linked to AI in Europe

Key Facts

Swedish asset manager Virtune launched a product on November 3 that tracks the Virtune AI and Crypto Index, listing it on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker VIRAI and on Xetra under VRTI. The company said it was its twenty-fifth exchange-traded product. Its launch offers exposure to a basket of assets linked to the financial infrastructure AI agents may use, rather than to a single token. Virtune said the product is physically backed in full by the underlying crypto assets. Trading began on the same day as the announcement, in Swedish krona in Stockholm and euros on Xetra.

Virtune developed the index with index provider MarketVector, and it includes 13 crypto assets across four categories at launch. These categories include payment networks, trading and liquidity, infrastructure and data, and computing power. Virtune said the basket “comprises 13 crypto assets at launch, covering four key areas.” This breakdown reflects the index’s broader scope, encompassing services and tools AI applications may need rather than only assets labeled as AI-related. Adding trading and liquidity, and infrastructure categories gives the index exposure to different components of the digital asset ecosystem targeted by the company.

The index is equally weighted, according to Virtune, and rebalanced every three months, with its constituents subject to change over time. The company said the index “is equally weighted and rebalanced every three months.” Quarterly rebalancing sets the timeframe for reviewing weights, while the possibility of changing constituents allows the basket to be updated as the market evolves. The product is therefore not based on weights fixed indefinitely; its constituents may change as the index is reviewed. Available information did not name the individual assets or their weights at launch.

The product’s disclosed annual management fee is 1.49%, according to Virtune. This represents the management cost the company disclosed for the product, while available information did not specify other fees or compare it with the costs of competing products. The product combines disclosed physical backing with periodic rebalancing, but remains exposed to crypto assets; its performance depends on the value of the assets tracked by the index. The fee therefore stands out as one of the disclosed economic terms alongside the basket’s structure and management approach. The announcement did not give a figure for the product’s assets under management or trading volume at launch.

Virtune’s chief executive linked the product’s launch to a broader bet on the role of autonomous agents in the digital economy. He said the company sees “the potential for AI agents to become the next big trend” as they evolve to buy services, make payments and interact with other agents. This view places payment, settlement and computing networks among the infrastructure that may serve those applications, explaining the diversity of the index’s categories. MarketVector announced the index’s launch on October 28, before the product was listed, saying it covered six layers autonomous agents rely on to hold, spend and settle funds. This shows the product launched about a week after the index announcement, moving from the index stage to trading through an instrument listed on two exchanges.

The move comes as the crypto AI sector remains small compared with broader cryptocurrency market categories. Grayscale estimated its size at about $15 billion after a rise in September 2026, describing it as the smallest of its six crypto sectors. But it said the sector “could produce one or more major winners over the next five years.” The firm’s research estimate reflects growing interest in the theme while its size remains limited, and Virtune’s product offers exposure through a basket of assets rather than a single-asset selection. Available information did not specify expected future performance for the index or the product.

The cryptocurrency market had seen a sharp decline in Bitcoin ahead of the product’s launch; the Associated Press reported that its price fell below $77,000 on October 30, after topping $86,000 earlier in the month. The report also linked the decline in crypto company shares to a Binance platform hack. The move places the product’s launch against a volatile market backdrop, although sources did not provide a price or performance figure for the product on its first day. Further out, Grayscale points to the next five years in its estimate of the potential for major winners to emerge in the sector. The announced step for now is the product’s listing and start of trading, with an annual fee of 1.49% and quarterly index rebalancing.