Spot Bitcoin ETF

A spot Bitcoin ETF is an exchange-traded fund that holds actual BTC at a regulated custodian. Each share represents a fractional claim on the BTC held by the fund. The shares trade on a stock exchange (NYSE Arca, Cboe BZX, Nasdaq) with normal tickers, market hours, and clearing.

The road to approval:

• 2013 - In July 2013, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss filed with the SEC to register the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust. The SEC turned down the exchange listing it needed in March 2017 and again in July 2018.
• 2017-2023 - More rejections. By SEC Chair Gary Gensler's count, the SEC disapproved more than 20 exchange filings for spot bitcoin products from 2018 through March 2023, including proposed funds from Bitwise, VanEck, ARK 21Shares, Valkyrie, WisdomTree and Grayscale. The orders turned on the Exchange Act requirement that an exchange's rules be "designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices."
• October 2021 - ProShares launched BITO, the first US bitcoin-linked ETF. It held CME bitcoin futures, not spot BTC. In 2022 the SEC approved exchange listings for two bitcoin futures funds, from Teucrium and Valkyrie.
• August 2023 - A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled that the SEC's denial of Grayscale's proposal to list GBTC was "arbitrary and capricious," because the SEC had not explained why it approved those two futures funds but not Grayscale's fund.
• January 10, 2024 - Eleven spot Bitcoin ETFs approved together.

The eleven funds in the SEC's January 2024 order, with the bitcoin custodians named in their annual reports filed in 2026:

• BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) - Coinbase Custody (Anchorage Digital is named as a backup the fund had not put to use)
• Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) - Fidelity Digital Assets (Fidelity's own custodian), with BitGo added in February 2026 as a backup the fund had no plans to use
• Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) - Coinbase Custody
• Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) - Coinbase Custody, BitGo and Anchorage Digital
• Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) - Coinbase Custody, with part of its bitcoin at Anchorage Digital; previously quoted over the counter on OTCQX
• VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL) - Gemini Trust, with Coinbase Custody as an additional custodian
• Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund (BRRR) - Coinbase Custody, BitGo and Komainu (sponsored by CoinShares since June 2024)
• Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC) - Coinbase Custody
• WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund (BTCW) - Coinbase Custody
• Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO) - Coinbase Custody
• Hashdex Bitcoin ETF (DEFI) - BitGo; it was a bitcoin futures fund until March 27, 2024, when it switched to holding spot BTC

As of those reports, Coinbase Custody was a custodian for nine of the eleven and the only one holding bitcoin for five (IBIT, BITB, EZBC, BTCW and BTCO). Some funds have added custodians since launch: ARK 21Shares signed Anchorage Digital and BitGo in September 2024, and Grayscale signed Anchorage Digital in August 2025.

How the wrapper actually works:

• NAV strikes daily as of 4:00 PM New York time. Several funds, including the iShares Bitcoin Trust, use the New York variant of the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRRNY); others use different benchmarks, such as the Fidelity Bitcoin Reference Rate.
• Authorized Participants create and redeem shares in large blocks. The mechanism keeps the market price close to NAV. GBTC's closing price, for example, averaged less than 0.1% away from NAV from its January 2024 uplisting through 2025, per its annual report.
• Creation/redemption was cash-only at launch. Most of the applications had planned for in-kind creation, but all were revised to cash-only during SEC review. On July 29, 2025 the SEC, under Chair Paul Atkins, voted to allow in-kind.
• Expense ratios in the funds' annual reports filed in 2026 run from 0.19% to 0.25% for most products. The exceptions are Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC, launched 2024), the cheapest at 0.15%, and GBTC at 1.50%, cut from 2.0% when it converted in January 2024.

What spot ETFs changed:

• Brokerage access. Investors can buy and sell shares through an ordinary brokerage account and skip handling bitcoin themselves, as the iShares Bitcoin Trust's annual report puts it. Institutions bought in too. In 13F filings, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which manages Wisconsin's public pension funds, reported IBIT and GBTC shares as of March 31, 2024, and Harvard Management Company, which manages Harvard's endowment, reported IBIT shares as of June 30, 2025.
• The basis trade. Some traders buy spot ETF shares and sell CME bitcoin futures against them to earn the gap between futures and spot prices. CF Benchmarks reported in June 2024 that net short positions held by leveraged funds in CME bitcoin futures had grown since the spot ETFs launched, which it read as a sign of this trade.

Editorial: spot ETFs were a structural win for Bitcoin's monetary thesis - regulated demand at scale, daily marks against a credible reference rate, and access from accounts that can never hold the asset directly. They are also not Bitcoin. The keys sit with a custodian. The shares are an IOU on someone else's custody arrangement. The whole pitch of Bitcoin - censorship-resistant, bearer, verifiable - is exactly what the ETF wrapper removes. Use the ETF when the use case demands it. For long-term holders who can self-custody, owning the keys is the point.