skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Questions
  4. >
  5. ETHQ: I am curious what information you have on BITW and your opinion on the crypto market as a whole. [3iQ Ether Staking ETF]
You can view 2 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: I am curious what information you have on BITW and your opinion on the crypto market as a whole. It has a 2.5% mer but remarkable performance YTD. I presently hold IBIT and ETHQ and until recently was a doubter but can not argue with returns to date.
Asked by Robert on December 18, 2024
5i Research Answer:

BITW is a closed-end fund that trades OTC with an AUM of $1.54B, and it trades at a 9% discount to its NAV. Even though it trades at a discount, it has returned 126% YTD, 684% since inception, which has lagged both BTC and the underlying index, however. It mostly holds BTC, ETH, with the remaining ~10% allocated to XRP, SOL, ADA, AVAX, LINK, DOT, and others. It has a high MER of 2.5%, and for investors seeking some exposure to some of the top digital assets via a publicly traded fund, we think it is OK, but given its high exposure to BTC and ETH (roughly 88%), its high MER, and discount to NAV, we would prefer exposure to a mix of high-quality BTC and ETH ETFs, which have substantially lower MERs, and trade in-line with their NAVs.

The digital assets space is an emerging economy, and while there are many coins that largely represent 'noise' in the space, there is also a lot of unlocked potential and efficiencies from many digital asset networks. We feel that with a pro-crypto administration, the US has the ability to lead in the crypto economy development, and for where the space is heading, we would look to what Blackrock and others are doing with tokenizing real world assets (ex: tokenized money market funds) for future applications. 

Authors of this answer, directors, partners and/or officers of 5i Research and/or affiliated companies have a financial or other interest in ETHQ, IBIT.