After 15 months and a roughly 30% loss, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that counters Meta's view of the Metaverse is closing.
Subversive Capital will close and liquidate its Subversive Metaverse ETF, ticker "PUNK," as the firm shifts focus to artificial intelligence (AI).
In January 2022, the PUNK ETF was launched with the goal of investing in companies supporting metaverse infrastructure and applications. However, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta was consciously absent from the list. In its online fund description, Subversive Capital emphasizes the importance to emerging technologies and human progress of responsible companies committed to principles such as egalitarianism, democracy, sustainability, and truth. Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms, contradicts those principles, the company said, saying any market capitalization above zero poses an immediate threat to liberal democracy and the very existence of the planet.
The Board of Directors has decided to close and liquidate the ETF immediately after the close of business on May 31, 2023. The company will continue normal operations of its other exchange funds. The investment firm joins a growing list of companies that have lost interest in the Metaverse. The ETF is shorted on Meta, and shares were trading around $300 when the fund launched. However, the value of Meta fell below $90 in November 2022 and has since rebounded to around $240.
Companies invested by the fund include Alphabet, Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft, among others. Subversive's portfolio manager Christian Cooper said they still believe Meta's priorities are wrong and have chosen to shift focus due to the rapid development of more promising technologies such as AI.
