What a coin costs in a brokerage account
Of the 40 spot crypto ETFs ETFIQ can measure on Sep 9, 2026, 31 finished within a point of the coin they hold, and the typical difference is 0.30%. That difference is the fee, the custody, the friction of creating and redeeming shares in blocks and whatever the market paid for the shares rather than for the coin, all together, and it is the only figure on this desk the sponsor does not publish itself.
8 coins are represented across 43 exchange traded funds. A coin with several funds on it is where the difference is worth reading: the coin's own move is the same for all of them, so what separates the funds is what each one costs to hold.
3 trusts are quoted too thinly to compare, closing unchanged on more than one trading day in twenty. Their difference against the coin describes the days somebody traded rather than what the fund did, and they are published with that said rather than ranked.
30 fund-windows cannot state their gap by subtraction at all. Once either return has compounded, the difference of two returns is dominated by the compounding: $ETHE since January 2020 returned +627.8% against Ether's +1,854.4%, which subtracts to -1,227 points and means nothing. The compounded gap is -62.8%, and that is what the site prints for those windows.
A bitcoin held directly and a bitcoin held through a brokerage account should, in theory, behave the same way. In practice they do not, and the gap between the two is the subject of this piece. Of the 40 spot crypto ETFs ETFIQ can measure on September 9, 2026, 31 finished within a point of the coin they hold, and the typical difference across the group is 0.30%. That figure is not a single cost. It bundles the management fee, the expense of custody, the friction of creating and redeeming shares in blocks, and whatever the market happened to pay for the shares that day rather than for the coin itself. It is also the one number here that no sponsor publishes on its own fact sheet.
Eight coins are represented across 43 funds, and the coins with several funds attached are where the comparison earns its keep. Bitcoin has 12 funds, and the median difference against the coin is −0.1%, with 9 of 11 measurable funds landing within a point; the median Bitcoin return over the period was −29.8%. Ether has 11 funds, a median difference of −0.1%, and all 11 measurable funds within a point, against a median coin return of −42.7%. Solana looks different: 8 funds, a median difference of +1.5%, and only 1 of 7 measurable funds within a point, against a median coin return of +60.9%. XRP, Avalanche and Dogecoin each show median differences of +0.4%, +0.3% and +0.4% with every measurable fund in each group within a point. Chainlink, with a single fund, shows a difference of +2.3% against a coin return of +56.2%, and Litecoin's single fund is not populated in this table. Because the coin's own move is identical for every fund that holds it, whatever separates the funds within a coin group is what each one costs, structurally, to hold.
Three trusts are quoted too thinly to compare on this basis: they close unchanged on more than one trading day in twenty, so their difference against the coin reflects the days somebody happened to trade rather than what the fund actually did over the full period. They are shown here with that caveat rather than placed alongside the others.
Thirty fund-windows cannot state their gap by simple subtraction at all. Once either return has compounded over a long enough stretch, subtracting one percentage figure from another produces nonsense: $ETHE since January 2020 returned +627.8% against Ether's own +1,854.4%, a subtraction that yields −1,227 points and means nothing. For those windows the site instead prints the gap between the two growth factors, which for that pairing is −62.8%.
Readers working from this piece can pull up any ticker on the live desk and check its current difference against the coin it holds, alongside the trading-day count behind that figure.
By coin, most funds first
| Coin | Funds | Median difference | Within a point | Median coin return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | 12 | −0.1% | 9 of 11 | −29.8% |
| Ether | 11 | −0.1% | 11 of 11 | −42.7% |
| Solana | 8 | +1.5% | 1 of 7 | +60.9% |
| XRP | 4 | +0.4% | 4 of 4 | +27.3% |
| Avalanche | 3 | +0.3% | 3 of 3 | +22.2% |
| Dogecoin | 3 | +0.4% | 3 of 3 | +4.0% |
| Chainlink | 1 | +2.3% | 0 of 1 | +56.2% |
| Litecoin | 1 | · | · | · |
Every measurable fund, closest to its coin first
| Ticker | Fund | Sponsor | Holds | The fund | The coin | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOEZ | Franklin Solana Trust | Franklin | Solana | +63.3% | +60.9% | +2.5% |
| CLNK | Bitwise Chainlink ETF | Bitwise | Chainlink | +58.6% | +56.2% | +2.3% |
| SOLC | Canary Marinade Solana ETF | Canary | Solana | +62.7% | +60.9% | +1.9% |
| FSOL | Fidelity Solana Fund | Fidelity | Solana | +62.4% | +60.9% | +1.6% |
| VSOL | VanEck Solana ETF | VanEck | Solana | +62.3% | +60.9% | +1.5% |
| QSOL | Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF | Invesco | Solana | +62.1% | +60.9% | +1.2% |
| TSOL | 21Shares Solana Staking ETF | 21Shares | Solana | +62.1% | +60.9% | +1.2% |
| ETH | Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF | Grayscale | Ether | −41.8% | −42.7% | +0.9% |
| XRPZ | Franklin XRP Trust | Franklin | XRP | +28.0% | +27.3% | +0.7% |
| MSOL | Morgan Stanley Solana Trust | Morgan | Solana | +38.4% | +37.7% | +0.7% |
| BWOW | Bitwise Dogecoin ETF | Bitwise | Dogecoin | +4.4% | +4.0% | +0.5% |
| TOXR | 21Shares XRP ETF | 21Shares | XRP | +27.7% | +27.3% | +0.5% |
| VAVX | VanEck Avalanche ETF | VanEck | Avalanche | +22.7% | +22.2% | +0.4% |
| GXRP | Grayscale XRP Trust ETF | Grayscale | XRP | +27.7% | +27.3% | +0.4% |
| GDOG | Grayscale Dogecoin Trust ETF | Grayscale | Dogecoin | +4.3% | +4.0% | +0.4% |
| XRP | Bitwise XRP ETF | Bitwise | XRP | +27.6% | +27.3% | +0.3% |
| TDOG | 21Shares Dogecoin ETF | 21Shares | Dogecoin | +4.3% | +4.0% | +0.3% |
| GAVA | Grayscale Avalanche Staking ETF | Grayscale | Avalanche | +22.5% | +22.2% | +0.3% |
| BAVA | Bitwise Avalanche ETF | Bitwise | Avalanche | +22.5% | +22.2% | +0.2% |
| TETH | 21Shares Ethereum Staking ETF | 21Shares | Ether | −42.5% | −42.7% | +0.2% |
| HODL | VanEck Bitcoin ETF | VanEck | Bitcoin | −29.8% | −29.8% | +0.1% |
| EZET | Franklin Ethereum Trust | Franklin | Ether | −42.7% | −42.7% | +0.0% |
| ETHW | Bitwise Ethereum ETF | Bitwise | Ether | −42.7% | −42.7% | +0.0% |
| ETHA | iShares Ethereum Trust ETF | iShares | Ether | −42.8% | −42.7% | −0.1% |
| ETHV | VanEck Ethereum ETF | VanEck | Ether | −42.8% | −42.7% | −0.1% |
| QETH | Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF | Invesco | Ether | −42.8% | −42.7% | −0.1% |
| ARKB | Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF | Ark | Bitcoin | −29.9% | −29.8% | −0.1% |
| BTC | Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF | Grayscale | Bitcoin | −29.9% | −29.8% | −0.1% |
| FETH | Fidelity Ethereum Fund | Fidelity | Ether | −42.8% | −42.7% | −0.1% |
| BRRR | CoinShares Bitcoin ETF | CoinShares | Bitcoin | −29.9% | −29.8% | −0.1% |
| BTCO | Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF | Invesco | Bitcoin | −29.9% | −29.8% | −0.1% |
| IBIT | iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF | iShares | Bitcoin | −29.9% | −29.8% | −0.1% |
| BITB | Bitwise Bitcoin ETF | Bitwise | Bitcoin | −29.9% | −29.8% | −0.1% |
| FBTC | Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund | Fidelity | Bitcoin | −30.0% | −29.8% | −0.1% |
| BTCW | WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund | WisdomTree | Bitcoin | −30.0% | −29.8% | −0.2% |
| MSSE | Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust | Morgan | Ether | +28.2% | +28.5% | −0.3% |
| ETHB | iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF | iShares | Ether | +51.9% | +52.3% | −0.4% |
| ETHE | Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF | Grayscale | Ether | −43.2% | −42.7% | −0.5% |
| MSBT | Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust | Morgan | Bitcoin | +26.4% | +27.4% | −1.0% |
| GBTC | Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF | Grayscale | Bitcoin | −30.8% | −29.8% | −1.0% |
Method. ETFIQ calculations from Tiingo end-of-day closes for each fund and Tiingo crypto closes for the coin it holds, read at the same two dates so that a weekend move belongs to the day it is realised on. The difference is the fund’s total return minus the coin’s. Where either return has compounded far enough that subtraction no longer states the gap, the gap between the two growth factors is published instead. Thinly quoted trusts are shown and not ranked. Medians across funds. Data file: https://etfiq.com/data/crypto.json. Rebuilt every trading night. ETFIQ is an independent publisher and makes no recommendations. Standards
Cite this page. ETFIQ Research, What a coin costs in a brokerage account, data as of Sep 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/research/2026-09-09/crypto-tracking Free to use with attribution; the underlying file is at https://etfiq.com/data/crypto.json.