# Does a bitcoin ETF actually hold bitcoin?

> Yes. A US listed spot bitcoin ETF holds the coin itself with a custodian, and its whole portfolio is that one line.

Data as of Oct 28, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night.

Answered from ETFIQ data as of Oct 28, 2026 .

## Does a bitcoin ETF actually hold bitcoin?

Yes. A US listed spot bitcoin ETF holds the coin itself with a custodian, and its whole portfolio is that one line. ETFIQ covers 56 spot crypto ETFs across 12 coins and every one of them holds its asset rather than futures on it or shares in companies that own it.

What it is not, almost always, is a fund. 53 of the 70 are 1933 Act trusts that file a 10-K rather than registered funds that file an N-PORT; BHDG , BITC , BITO , BNAV , CHNL , CRDD , DOJE , EETH , HBTC , MAXI , NGHT , ORO , SOLZ , SSK , STLR , XRPI and XRPR are registered series and file an N-PORT. A 1933 Act trust has a sponsor, not an adviser. It publishes no 19a-1 notice and appears in none of the SEC investment company files the rest of this site is built from. Sponsors and the market say ETF. The filings say trust.

Holding the coin does not give a holder the coin’s return. The trust charges a sponsor’s fee, pays a custodian, and creates and redeems in blocks. Its shares trade at whatever the market pays, not at what the coin is worth. All of that shows up in one number: the fund’s total return minus the coin’s over the same days. The sponsor does not publish that number.

2 funds here are quoted rather than traded, closing unchanged on more than one day in twenty. ETFIQ publishes them with the reason and never ranks them against funds that trade every day. A price nobody moved is not a price.

### On ETFIQ today

| Ticker | Fund | Holds | Net assets, as filed | Fee | Against the coin |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IBIT | iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF | Bitcoin | $43.4bn | 0.25% | −0.2 pts |
| FBTC | Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund | Bitcoin | not read | 0.25% | −0.2 pts |
| GBTC | Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF | Bitcoin | $8.1bn | 1.50% | −1.0 pts |
| ETHA | iShares Ethereum Trust ETF | Ether | $4.3bn | 0.25% | −0.3 pts |
| BTC | Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF | Bitcoin | $3.2bn | 0.15% | −0.1 pts |
| BITB | Bitwise Bitcoin ETF | Bitcoin | $2.1bn | 0.20% | −0.1 pts |
| ARKB | Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF | Bitcoin | $1.9bn | 0.21% | −0.1 pts |
| FETH | Fidelity Ethereum Fund | Ether | not read | 0.25% | −0.2 pts |
| ETH | Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF | Ether | $1.3bn | 0.15% | +1.0 pts |
| ETHE | Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF | Ether | $1.2bn | 2.50% | −0.6 pts |
| HODL | VanEck Bitcoin ETF | Bitcoin | $959m | 0.20% | 0.0 pts |
| BSOL | Bitwise Solana Staking ETF | Solana | $592m | 0.20% | +5.9% |

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### Sources

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Source: ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices.
Cite: ETFIQ, Does a bitcoin ETF actually hold bitcoin?, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/questions/does-a-bitcoin-etf-actually-hold-bitcoin
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