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Coinbase announced the launch of its first-ever weighted index fund. The company's CEO Asiff Hirji said the move would help investors get exposure to the "crypto-assets we offer on our exchange," including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum and litecoin. He signalled the decision to launch the index had been influenced by the stronger interest in cryptocurrencies investors had shown over the past year. Mr Hirji said: "It's a very simple to use, easy way to get exposure to the crypto-assets that we offer on our exchange.

CNBC•GETTY Bitcoin news: Coinbase CEO Asiff Hirji announced the launch of a new index fund

"In 2017, the trade volume increased about 30 times... It’s pretty tough growing 30 times without having some bumps in the road. We had our fair share of bumps. The platform grew more than 40 times, our actual support capability grew 600 times. "That’s still not enough, lots of customers still didn’t get the support they needed." The Coinbase Index Fund will only be available to US investors and will give access to Coinbase's regulated exchange GDAX. Coinbase is only opening their product to accredited investors after warnings from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who are concerned about cryptocurrency financial products. Mr Hirji told Mr Hirji told CNBC : "There’s a separate legal entity, which is completely separate from Coinable, to protect the investors – Coinbase Asset Management.

It's a very simple to use, easy way to get exposure to the crypto-assets that we offer on our exchange Asiff Hirji

"It will buy the assets and the funds, it will market-weight those assets, it will rebalance those assets as the index goes up and down and you will be able to invest or redeem overtime. "Over time we would hope very much to expand to all investors and we are working with the regulators on what’s going to take to make this happen." Coinbase say that like how the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a basket of 30 stocks meant to give a sense of the American economy, this fund will try to reflect major trends in the cryptocurrency market. The launch marks the $1.6 billion company's first foray into asset management and will be weighted by market capitalisation.