One of the most well-known companies in the crypto-currency sphere is reportedly planning to launch a firm targeting US investors with a net worth of at least $1 million.

Coinbase, provider of crypto-currency wallet and exchange services, is planning to launch a fund purely for high net worth investors wishing to bet on four top digital coins. 

The Coinbase Index Fund, under the company’s new subsidiary Coinbase Asset Management, will only be open to accredited investors – those with annual salaries exceeding $200,000, or a net worth of at least $1 million (excluding housing). It will invest in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin and ethereum – four of five crypto-currencies with the largest market capitalisations listed on GDAX, the Coinbase-owned exchange. 

However, the fund will initially be limited to US accredited investors, Reuben Bramanathan from Coinbase told the Financial Times. “But as we build more funds, we’ll make them available to US retail investors.”

Last year saw a meteoric rise in the price of crypto-currencies as speculative investors lured by outsize returns poured hundreds of billions of dollars into digital coins underpinned by blockchain technology. The price of bitcoin, for example, rocketed from under $1,000 last January to more than $20,000 on some exchanges at its peak in December, before crashing back down to earth when it more than halved in value just weeks later. 

While crypto-currencies have sparked heated debate over whether they can truly be considered a store of value because of their volatility, some investors have sought to buy a basket of digital coins. US regulators, however, have to date taken a dim view of proposals for exchange-traded funds that track crypto assets, rejecting fund launch requests from the likes of the Winklevoss twins, who are reportedly bitcoin billionaires and founded crypto-currency exchange Gemini. 

Bramanathan did not specify when Coinbase’s fund would launch, nor the amount it is seeking to raise, according to the Financial Times. It would charge a 2 per cent flat fee annually, he said.

Although the fund will likely draw attention because of its parent’s household name in the crypto sphere, it is not unique. Bitwise Investments launched a fund last year which holds 10 crypto-currencies and a group of former Goldman Sachs faces started a fund holding 20 coins earlier this year.