It states in the prospectus that this product was not meant to last. Even if this event hadn't happened the note would have matured in 2030 and the product would have been dissolved. Here is an excerpt from the prospectus:
"The ETNs are riskier than securities that have intermediate or long-term investment objectives, and may not be suitable for investors who plan to hold them for longer than one day. Accordingly, the ETNs should be purchased only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of investing in volatility indices and of seeking inverse or leveraged investment results, as applicable. Investors should actively and frequently monitor their investments in the ETNs, even intra-day.
As explained in “Risk Factors” in this pricing supplement, because of the way in which the underlying Indices are calculated, the amount payable at maturity or upon redemption or acceleration is likely to be less than the amount of your initial investment in the ETNs, and you are likely to lose part or all of your initial investment. In almost any potential scenario the Closing Indicative Value (as defined below) of your ETNs is likely to be close to zero after 20 years and we do not intend or expect any investor to hold the ETNs from inception to maturity."
Even with all this said, the issuer was paid the fees to follow the exact goal laid out in their prospectus. If they had somehow saved this ETN from this event through hedging or other methods, this would have been outside their range of allowed investments and would have been illegal as such. SVXY and XIV got hit the same, the creators of XIV just decided to absolve their fund because they are seemingly worried about future volatility and another event like this happening.
