Ophelia co-founded 21shares in 2018. The company built exchange-traded products that gave investors a way to access digital assets through traditional brokerage infrastructure. Her founder experience included navigating regulation, building partnerships and organizing a business across markets.
A 2026 NYU Stern profile describes 21shares’ acquisition by FalconX in 2025 and her subsequent work investing and advising. She emphasizes management as a discipline: clear responsibilities, shared goals and structured decision-making. That connects the technical and regulatory work of financial innovation with the everyday task of leading a team.
Before founding 21shares, she studied earth systems at Stanford, earned her MBA at NYU Stern in 2016 and worked in investment banking. Her Stern profile describes how close study of existing exchange rules revealed a regulatory route for launching a crypto ETP in Europe in 2018—an example of product development through market structure, not simply through new technology.
Where Ophelia can help
- Digital-asset product design
- Regulated-market execution
- Cross-border financial products
- Leadership systems
Operating and investing experience
A selection of companies and roles connected to Ophelia Snyder.
Ventures
21shares
co-founder
Highlights
- Helped build crypto exchange-traded products
- NYU Stern reports 21shares’ acquisition by FalconX in 2025
Questionsfounders ask aboutOphelia Snyder
What problem did 21shares address?
It made digital-asset exposure available through exchange-traded products and familiar brokerage infrastructure.
What makes Ophelia’s experience relevant to regulated startups?
Building those products required attention to regulation, market structure and institutional partnerships as well as customer demand.
What leadership lesson does she emphasize?
In her NYU Stern interview, she emphasizes clear roles, measurable goals and the idea that management is a discipline founders must learn.
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