Crypto ETF or buy the coin: what is the difference?
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The fund holds the coin for you and charges for it, and you own a share rather than the asset. Over their longest window 36 of the 45 spot ETFs ETFIQ measures landed within a point of the coin, so the cost of that arrangement is usually small and it is never nothing.
What you gain is a brokerage account: no wallet, no keys, no exchange, and a security your existing broker settles and reports on. What you give up is direct ownership, and on a proof of stake coin the option to stake it yourself.
The costs are the sponsor’s fee, the custodian, and the friction of creating and redeeming shares in blocks. ETFIQ does not add them up from documents. It measures what came out the other end: the fund’s return against the coin’s over the same days. That number carries everything, including costs nobody discloses.
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, and publishes no 19a-1 notice. The industry and the regulator call these digital asset products. Most sponsors now call them ETFs.
On ETFIQ today
Answered from ETFIQ data as of Oct 28, 2026.Points (pts) are percentage points.
| Ticker | Fund | Holds | The fund | The coin | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HODL | VanEck Bitcoin ETF | Bitcoin | −28.3% | −28.3% | 0.0 pts |
| BTC | Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF | Bitcoin | −28.4% | −28.3% | −0.1 pts |
| SUIS | Canary Staked SUI ETF | Sui | +2.0% | +2.1% | −0.1 pts |
| ETHW | Bitwise Ethereum ETF | Ether | −41.4% | −41.3% | −0.1 pts |
| EZET | Franklin Ethereum Trust | Ether | −41.5% | −41.3% | −0.1 pts |
| ARKB | Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF | Bitcoin | −28.4% | −28.3% | −0.1 pts |
| BITB | Bitwise Bitcoin ETF | Bitcoin | −28.4% | −28.3% | −0.1 pts |
| FETH | Fidelity Ethereum Fund | Ether | −41.5% | −41.3% | −0.2 pts |
| IBIT | iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF | Bitcoin | −28.5% | −28.3% | −0.2 pts |
| MSSE | Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust | Ether | +23.6% | +23.4% | +0.2 pts |
| TSUI | 21Shares Sui Staking ETF | Sui | +10.0% | +9.8% | +0.2 pts |
| FBTC | Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund | Bitcoin | −28.5% | −28.3% | −0.2 pts |
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ETFIQ, Crypto ETF or buy the coin: what is the difference?, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/questions/what-is-the-difference-between-a-crypto-etf-and-buying-the-coin
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). Crypto ETF or buy the coin: what is the difference?. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/questions/what-is-the-difference-between-a-crypto-etf-and-buying-the-coin
[Crypto ETF or buy the coin: what is the difference? (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/questions/what-is-the-difference-between-a-crypto-etf-and-buying-the-coin)
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