Van Eck Global (1955 to 2016) In 1955, John van Eck founded Van Eck Global, an investment firm that capitalized on the growing international
stock market after the opening of
Western Europe to US investors in the wake of the
Marshall Plan. His father moved to the US from the Netherlands in the early 20th century as an employee of
Shell plc to expand its international business. In 1968, the firm launched one of the first US gold funds, International Investors Gold Fund and moved most of its portfolio into shares of
gold mining companies. During the 1970s and up to the mid-1980s, gold experienced a
bull market and the firm experienced significant success. The International Investors Gold Fund received large
subscriptions and had more than $1 billion in
assets under management (AUM). However, after the mid-1980s, the gold market boom ended and the firm's business slowed down. By February 1998, the International Investors Gold Fund had dwindled to $250 million.
VanEck (since 2016) In March 2016, the firm announced that from May 2016 onwards, it would be using the brand name VanEck and all businesses and investment offerings would be all under the VanEck brand. In January 2018, VanEck acquired Think ETF Asset Management, a Dutch ETF issuer for an undisclosed sum. It was done to help expand the firm's business in Europe. On March 2, 2021, VanEck launched Vectors Social Sentiment ETF on
NYSE Arca under the ticker 'BUZZ'. The funds index composed of stocks that are popular on
social media. On its first day of trading it had $280 million of inflows making it one of the 12 best debuts on record. However commentators have stated that its top holdings were large companies such as
Twitter and
Facebook making it similar to an
S&P 500 index that focuses on technology. In addition the constituent members were only rebalanced on a monthly basis so companies such as
GameStop,
AMC and
BlackBerry that had trading frenzies in January that year would not appear. The fund manager could also ignore the index if he saw fit. VanEck has made multiple attempts to launch VanEck Bitcoin Trust, a
spot Bitcoin ETF that is exchange-listed. However, in November 2021, the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected the application citing worries over the potential that fraud in the
cryptocurrency market will reach regulated exchanges. In March 2023, its application was denied for a third time. On January 11, 2024, the SEC approved VanEck VanEck Bitcoin Trust and it started trading on the
Chicago Board Options Exchange under the ticker 'HODL'. The SEC approved VanEck's ethereum ETF, the VanEck Ethereum ETF, shortly thereafter and it began trading on July 23, 2024. In December 2022, VanEck liquidated its Russia ETF products as a result of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions had been imposed on Russian companies, meaning they could not be traded as single stocks or within ETFs in the west. Jan van Eck is currently the firm's
chief executive officer and the firm is currently owned by him and his family. == References ==