Coinbase's cryptocurrency index fund opens its door to U.S. investors

In March, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced it would be launching an index fund for cryptocurrencies, allowing investors to effortlessly buy a basket of coins traded on Coinbase's exchange GDAX, recently rebranded to Coinbase Pro.

Now, the fund is officially open for U.S. accredited investors who wish to invest from $250,000 to $20 million.

In a blog post published Tuesday, Coinbase's Asset Management Product Lead Reuben Bramanathan wrote that the company has seen "overwhelming interest from investors" since the original announcement.

The Coinbase Index Fund charges a 2% annual management fee, and invests in all four coins currently listed on Coinbase Pro, weighted by market cap -- Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. Per Coinbase's announcement yesterday, a fifth cryptocurrency -- Ethereum Classic -- will be added to this list in the following months.

If the requirements sound prohibitive, there's still hope. Coinbase is "working on launching more funds which are accessible to all investors and cover a broader range of digital assets," the post said. There are other options open to individuals. You can, for example, easily track the fund's performance by investing in the same cryptocurrencies directly through Coinbase. Or you can buy a token like Crypto20, which is a tokenized index fund that tracks the performance of 20 large cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase has been rapidly expanding its portfolio of services and products to accommodate institutional investors this year. In May, the company announced four new major products that cater to the needs of pro investors, including a central liquidity pool, secure cryptocurrency storage, a professional-grade trading platform as well as research and support services.

Disclosure: The author of this text owns, or has recently owned, a number of cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH. The author of this text does not own, or has not recently owned, C20.