IBIT 10-K & 10-Q changes, risk factors and insider trading
iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF · Nasdaq · Commodity Contracts Brokers & Dealers · CIK 1980994 · All filings on SEC.gov
At a glance
What changed in the latest 10-K
Risk Factors
New heading “Disruptions or other problems in the supply chain for bitcoin mining hardware and difficulties in obtaining new hardware could cause harm to the Bitcoin network.”
New heading “The Shares may trade at a price that is at, above or below the Trust’s NAV as a result of the non-current trading hours between NASDAQ and the digital asset market.”
Removed heading “The Trust is an “emerging growth company” and it cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make the Shares less attractive to investors.”
Largest changes
“The Trust will not hold or trade in commodity interests (as currently defined) regulated by the CEA, as administered by the CFTC. Furthermore, the Sponsor believes that the Trust is not a commodity pool for purposes of the CEA, and that neither the Sponsor nor the Trustee is subject to regulation by the CFTC as a commodity pool operator or a commodity trading adviser in connection with the operation of the Trust. Consequently, Shareholders will not have the regulatory protections provided to investors in CEA-regulated instruments or commodity pools. …”see in full comparison
“There are a small number of major suppliers of bitcoin mining hardware globally, and a significant amount of bitcoin mining hardware manufacturing is located in China. Mining hardware manufacturers may fail to supply the mining hardware due to their inability to manufacture sufficient mining hardware, whether due to shortages of components or resources such as semiconductors, or changes of laws and trade restrictions (including export/import restrictions, quotas or tariffs), or due to insolvency, or non-performance or default on their contracts. …”see in full comparison
“As illustrated by the 2022 Events, many of the players in the digital assets markets are interconnected - for example, certain market participants may be active in both borrowing and lending, or engage in a wide variety of trading relationships and transactions, with respect to many of the same counterparties, or with respect to the same digital assets or blockchain networks - which can heighten the contagion risks if one of them defaults on its obligations to others or a given digital blockchain network or digital asset were to stop functioning properly or lose substantial value, as …”see in full comparison
Alternatively, the Trustee could decide to replace Coinbase Custody as the Bitcoin Custodian with custody of the Trust’ssee in full comparisonbitcoins,bitcoin, pursuant to the Custodian Agreement. Similarly, Coinbase Custody or Coinbase Inc. could terminate services under the Custodian Agreement or the Prime Execution Agent Agreement respectively upon providing the applicable notice to the Trust for any reason, or immediately forCauseCause.(aA “Termination for Cause” is defined in the Custodian Agreement and Prime Execution Agent Agreement as (i) the Trust materially breaching any provision of the Custodian Agreement and such failure is not cured within 30 calendar days after notice of such breach is provided by Coinbase Inc. to the Trust, or the Trust materially breaching any provision of the Prime Execution Agent Agreement and such breach remains uncured for 10 calendar days following notice; (ii) the Trust becomes bankrupt or insolvent; or (iii) the Trust fails to pay and settle in full its obligations to Coinbase Custody’s affiliate, the Trade Credit Lender (as defined below), which may, from time to time, provide financing to the Trust in the form of TradeCredits).Credits.TransferringIn the event that the Trust transfers maintenance responsibilities of the Trust’s account at the Bitcoin Custodian to another custodianwill(orlikely be complex and could subjecttransfers the Trust’s bitcoin from the Bitcoin Custodian or the Prime Execution Agent to the Additional Bitcoin Custodian or vice versa), the Trust’s bitcoin would be subject to a risk of loss during the transfer, which if such risk eventuates, could have a negative impact on the performance of the Shares or result in loss of the Trust’s assets. As Prime Execution Agent, Coinbase Inc. does not guarantee uninterrupted access to the Trading Platform or the services it provides to the Trust as Prime Execution Agent. Under certain circumstances, Coinbase Inc. is permitted to halt or suspend trading on its trading platform, or impose limits on the amount or size of, or reject, the Trust’s orders, including in the event of, among others, (a) delays, suspension of operations, failure in performance, or interruption of service that are directly due to a cause or condition beyond the reasonable control of Coinbase Inc, (b) the Trust has engaged in unlawful or abusive activities or fraud, (c) the acceptance of the Trust’s order would cause the amount of Trade Credits extended to exceed the maximum amount of Trade Credit (as defined below) that the Trust’s agreement with the Trade Credit Lender permits to be outstanding at any one time, or (d) a security or technology issue occurred and is continuing that results in Coinbase Inc. being unable to provide trading services or accept the Trust’s order, in each case, subject to certain protections for the Trust. Also, if Coinbase Custody or Coinbase Inc.becomebecomes insolvent,suffersuffers business failure,ceaseceases business operations,defaultdefaults on orfailfails to perform their obligations under their contractual agreements with the Trust, or abruptlydiscontinuediscontinues the services they provide to the Trust for any reason, the Trust’soperationsoperations, including its creation and redemptionprocessesprocesses, would be adversely affected.
Extreme volatility may persist and the value of the Shares may significantly decline in the future without recovery. The digital asset markets may still be experiencing a bubble or may experience a bubble again in the future. For example, in the first half of 2022, each of Celsius Network, Voyager Digital Ltd., and Three Arrows Capital declared bankruptcy, resulting in a loss of confidence in participants of the digital asset ecosystem and negative publicity surrounding digital assets more broadly. In November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”), one of the largest digital asset platforms by volume at the time, halted customer withdrawals amid rumors of the company’s liquidity issues and likely insolvency, which were subsequently corroborated by its CEO. Shortly thereafter, FTX’s CEO resigned and FTX and many of its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the United States, while other affiliates have entered insolvency, liquidation, or similar proceedings around the globe, following which the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) brought criminal fraud and other charges, and the SEC and CFTC brought civil securities and commodities fraud charges, against certain of FTX’s and its affiliates’ senior executives, including its former CEO. In addition, several other entities in the digital asset industry filed for bankruptcy following FTX’s bankruptcy filing, such as BlockFi Inc. and Genesis Global Capital, LLC (“Genesis”).see in full comparisonIn response toSince theseeventsevents, (collectively, the “2022 Events”), regulatory actions continued. In April 2025, the DOJ issued a policy memo ending “regulation by prosecution” for crypto actors, refocusing on fraud, illicit finance, and aligning enforcement with executive directives. Acting CFTC Chairman directed staff to follow the DOJ’s new policy, pausing certain prosecutions. In July 2025, BlockFi reached a $35 million settlement with the DOJ, clearing legal hurdles for creditor distributions. As a result of these events, the digital asset markets have experienced extreme price volatility and other entities in the digital asset industry have been, and may continue to be, negatively affected, further undermining confidence in the digital asset markets. These events have also negatively impacted the liquidity of the digital asset markets as certain entities affiliated with FTX engaged in significant trading activity. If the liquidity of the digital asset markets continues to be negatively impacted by these events, digital asset prices, including bitcoin, may continue to experience significant volatility or price declines and confidence in the digital asset markets may be further undermined. In addition, regulatory and enforcement scrutiny has increased, including from, among others, theDepartment of Justice,DOJ, the SEC, the CFTC, the White House and Congress, as well as state regulators and authorities. These events are continuing to develop and the full facts are continuing to emerge. It is not possible to predict at this time all of the risks that they may pose to the Trust, its service providers or to the digital asset industry as a whole.
“With respect to the Anchorage Custodian Agreement, other than with respect to claims and losses arising from: (i) fraud or willful misconduct of the Additional Bitcoin Custodian and (ii) the Anchorage Mutually Capped Liabilities (defined below), in no event will the Additional Bitcoin Custodian’s liability exceed the value of the cash or affected bitcoin giving rise to such liability. …”see in full comparison
Full comparison: every changed paragraph (125)
The trading prices of many digital assets, including bitcoin, have experienced extreme volatility in recent periods and may continue to do so. The average annualized one-year trailing volatility of bitcoin over the past ten years to date remains elevated at 66%.65%. Over the course of 2021, there were steep increases in the value of certain digital assets, including bitcoin, and multiple market observers asserted that digital assets were experiencing a “bubble.” These increases were followed by steep drawdowns throughout 2022 in digital asset trading prices, including for bitcoin. In the 2021-2022 cycle, the price of bitcoin peaked at $67,734 and bottomed at $15,632, marking a steep 77% drawdown. These episodes of rapid price appreciation followed by steep drawdowns have occurred multiple times throughout bitcoin’s history, including in 2011, 2013-2014, and 2017-2018, before repeating again in 2021-2022.2021-2022 and 2024. Bitcoin has continued to experience significant volatility into late 2025 and early 2026. For example, bitcoin lost approximately 14% of its value according to some sources in mid-October 2025 as part of wider digital asset market turmoil, widely attributed to global trade tensions, which triggered a number of dislocations in the digital asset market (the “October 2025 Flash Crash”), including liquidations of up to $20 billion in collateral in the form of various digital assets (including, but not limited to, bitcoin) securing trades (particularly perpetual futures contracts and various forms of financing transactions), along with reported service interruptions, halted orders, forced unwinding of trades, and other issues, across centralized and decentralized exchanges. As of the date of this report, digital asset prices have continued to fluctuate in 2026.
Extreme volatility may persist and the value of the Shares may significantly decline in the future without recovery. The digital asset markets may still be experiencing a bubble or may experience a bubble again in the future. For example, in the first half of 2022, each of Celsius Network, Voyager Digital Ltd., and Three Arrows Capital declared bankruptcy, resulting in a loss of confidence in participants of the digital asset ecosystem and negative publicity surrounding digital assets more broadly. In November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”), one of the largest digital asset platforms by volume at the time, halted customer withdrawals amid rumors of the company’s liquidity issues and likely insolvency, which were subsequently corroborated by its CEO. Shortly thereafter, FTX’s CEO resigned and FTX and many of its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the United States, while other affiliates have entered insolvency, liquidation, or similar proceedings around the globe, following which the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) brought criminal fraud and other charges, and the SEC and CFTC brought civil securities and commodities fraud charges, against certain of FTX’s and its affiliates’ senior executives, including its former CEO. In addition, several other entities in the digital asset industry filed for bankruptcy following FTX’s bankruptcy filing, such as BlockFi Inc. and Genesis Global Capital, LLC (“Genesis”). In response toSince these eventsevents, (collectively, the “2022 Events”), regulatory actions continued. In April 2025, the DOJ issued a policy memo ending “regulation by prosecution” for crypto actors, refocusing on fraud, illicit finance, and aligning enforcement with executive directives. Acting CFTC Chairman directed staff to follow the DOJ’s new policy, pausing certain prosecutions. In July 2025, BlockFi reached a $35 million settlement with the DOJ, clearing legal hurdles for creditor distributions. As a result of these events, the digital asset markets have experienced extreme price volatility and other entities in the digital asset industry have been, and may continue to be, negatively affected, further undermining confidence in the digital asset markets. These events have also negatively impacted the liquidity of the digital asset markets as certain entities affiliated with FTX engaged in significant trading activity. If the liquidity of the digital asset markets continues to be negatively impacted by these events, digital asset prices, including bitcoin, may continue to experience significant volatility or price declines and confidence in the digital asset markets may be further undermined. In addition, regulatory and enforcement scrutiny has increased, including from, among others, the Department of Justice,DOJ, the SEC, the CFTC, the White House and Congress, as well as state regulators and authorities. These events are continuing to develop and the full facts are continuing to emerge. It is not possible to predict at this time all of the risks that they may pose to the Trust, its service providers or to the digital asset industry as a whole.
The priceprices of some digital assets, including bitcoin, hashave risenfluctuated significantly following the 2024 election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. SomeIndustry participants generally expect the new administration to adoptcontinue to take a constructive attitudeapproach toward the digital assetsasset industry. Through his executive orders, President Trump has indicated that the administration will work toward providing greater regulatory clarity and certainty for emerging technologies, including blockchain technology and digital assets, thereby fostering their development. Similarly, the digital assetsasset industry expects favorable legislation from the newcurrent U.S. Congress as certain members have expressed interest in advancing digital asset specific legislation. To the extent market expectations about future activity by the administration or Congress lead digital asset prices and valuations to increase, there can be no assurance such expectations will be fulfilled, or that digital asset prices will rise or maintain their current levels. Some commentators have referred to the digital asset market post-President Trump’s election as a bubble. There can be no assurance that such a bubble does not exist. The failure of the administration and Congress to provide greater regulatory clarity and certainty for blockchain technology and digital assets, such as through promulgating a regulatory framework governing the issuance and operation of digital assets that meets industry expectations, could lead to a decline in digital assetsasset prices, including bitcoin. Such a decline could cause a declinesdecline in the value of theour Shares and cause our Shareholders to suffer losses. Moreover, there can be no assurance that political sentiments toward the digital asset industry, or market perceptions of those sentiments, will not shift over time. Extreme volatility in the future, including further declines in the trading prices of bitcoin, could have a material adverse effect on the value of the Shares, and could lose all or substantially all of their value.
On March 6, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order for the “Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile” (the “Order”). The Order requires the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury to establish two offices to administer and maintain a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” (the “Bitcoin Reserve”) and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile (the “Digital Asset Stockpile”), respectively. The Bitcoin Reserve is intended to be capitalized with bitcoin forfeited as part of U.S. criminal or civil proceedings or in satisfaction of penalties imposed by executive agencies. The Digital Asset Stockpile is intended to be capitalized initially with other digital assets forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. Following the issuance of the Order, bitcoin markets developed expectations that the United States may begin acquiring and holding bitcoin, which many viewed as a positive development for bitcoin prices. The Order directs the Secretaries of the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Commerce to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin for the Bitcoin Reserve. Legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives that would direct the acquisition of one million bitcoin by the federal government over a five-year period, to be held in trust in secure storage by the U.S. Treasury. The bill proposed funding the bitcoin acquisition using remittances from the Federal Reserve, revaluations of Federal Reserve gold certificates, and other mechanisms characterized as budget-neutral (such as transfers from federal agencies using bitcoin acquired through asset forfeitures). Bills were also introduced in several state legislatures to authorize the acquisition of bitcoin by state governments or their instrumentalities, some of which have failed to pass. As of early 2026, these initiatives remain subject to significant uncertainty. While some administrative steps have reportedly been taken, there is no assurance that the federal government or any state government will announce or implement bitcoin acquisition plans, or that any such plans will meet market expectations. Even if government acquisitions occur or legislation requiring acquisitions is enacted, the price of bitcoin may decline if there are implementation challenges, unexpected difficulties, policy or legal reversals, or changes in political priorities, any of which may negatively impact Share value. Executive orders such as the Order are subject to change and can be reversed or overturned. The enduring existence and size of the Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile, and the passage and implementation of legislation at the federal or state level, remain subject to complex challenges and uncertainty that make it difficult to evaluate their effect on the value of bitcoin and the Shares, now or in the future.
The Bitcoin network was first launched in 2009, and bitcoinsbitcoin werewas the first cryptographic digital assetsasset created to gain global adoption and critical mass. Although the Bitcoin network is the most established digital asset network, the Bitcoin network and other cryptographic and algorithmic protocols governing the issuance of digital assets represent a new and rapidly evolving industry that is subject to a variety of factors that are difficult to evaluate. For example, the realization of one or more of the following risks could materially adversely affect the value of the Shares:
The Bitcoin network uses a cryptographic protocol to govern the interactions within the Bitcoin network. A loose community known as the core developers has evolved to informally manage the source code for the protocol. Membership in the community of core developers evolve over time, largely based on self‑determined participation in the resource section dedicated to bitcoin on Github.com. The core developers can propose amendments to the Bitcoin network’s source code that, if accepted by miners and users, could alter the protocols and software of the Bitcoin network and the properties of bitcoin. These alterations would occur through software upgrades, and could potentially include changes to the irreversibility of transactions and limitations on the mining of new bitcoin, which could undermine the appeal and market value of bitcoin. Alternatively, software upgrades and other changes to the protocols of the Bitcoin network could fail to work as intended or could introduce bugs, security risks, or otherwise adversely affect, the speed, security, usability, or value of the Bitcoin network or bitcoins.bitcoin. As a result, the Bitcoin network could be subject to changes to its protocols and software in the future that may adversely affect an investment in the Trust.
The Bitcoin network operates based on an open-source protocol maintained by the core developers and other contributors, largely on the GitHub resource section dedicated to bitcoin network development. As bitcoinsbitcoin are rewarded solely for mining activity and are not sold to raise capital for the Bitcoin network, and the Bitcoin network protocol itself is made available for free rather than sold or made available subject to licensing or subscription fees and its use does not generate revenues for its development team, the core developers are generally not compensated for maintaining and updating the source code for the Bitcoin network protocol. Consequently, there is a lack of financial incentive for developers to maintain or develop the Bitcoin network and the core developers may lack the resources to adequately address emerging issues with the Bitcoin network protocol. Although the Bitcoin network is currently supported by the core developers, there can be no guarantee that such support will continue or be sufficient in the future. For example, there have been recent reports that the number of core developers who have the authority to make amendments to the Bitcoin network’s source code in the GitHub repository is relatively small, although there are believed to be a larger number of developers who contribute to the overall development of the source code of the Bitcoin network. Alternatively, some developers may be funded by entities whose interests are at odds with other participants in the Bitcoin network. In addition, a bad actor could also attempt to interfere with the operation of the Bitcoin network by attempting to exercise a malign influence over a core developer. To the extent that material issues arise with the Bitcoin network protocol and the core developers and open-source contributors are unable to address the issues adequately or in a timely manner, the Bitcoin network and an investment in the Trust may be adversely affected.
As corresponding increases in throughput lag behind growth in the use of digital asset networks, average fees and settlement times may increase considerably. For example, the Bitcoin network has been, at times, at capacity, which has led to increased transaction fees. Since January 1, 2019, bitcoin transaction fees have increased from $0.18 per-bitcoin transaction, on average, to a high of $60.95 per transaction, on average, on April 20, 2021. As of December 31, 2024,2025, bitcoin transaction fees were $1.79$1.18 per transaction, on average.average, over a one-year trailing basis (according to Coin Metrics). Increased fees and decreased settlement speeds could preclude certain uses for bitcoin (e.g., micropayments), and could reduce demand for, and the price of, bitcoin, which could adversely impact the value of the Shares. In May 2023, events related to the adoption of ordinals, which are a means of inscribing digital content on the bitcoin blockchain, caused transaction fees to temporarily spike above $30 per transaction.
The largest bitcoin wallets are believed to hold, in aggregate, a significant percentage of the bitcoinsbitcoin in circulation. Moreover, it is possible that other persons or entities control multiple wallets that collectively hold a significant number of bitcoins,bitcoin, even if they individually only hold a small amount, and it is possible that some of these wallets are controlled by the same person or entity. As a result of this concentration of ownership, large sales or distributions by such holders could have an adverse effect on the market price of bitcoin.
The Bitcoin network operates using open-source protocols, meaning that any user can download the software, modify it and then propose that the users and miners of bitcoin adopt the modification. When a modification is introduced and a substantial majority of users and miners consent to the modification, the change is implemented and the network remains uninterrupted. However, if less than a substantial majority of users and miners consent to the proposed modification, and the modification is not compatible with the software prior to its modification, the consequence would be what is known as a “hard fork” of the Bitcoin network, with one group running the pre-modified software and the other running the modified software. The effect of such a fork would be the existence of two versions of bitcoin running in parallel on separate networks using separate blockchain ledgers, yet lacking interchangeability. For example, in August 2017, bitcoin “forked” into bitcoin and a new digital asset, Bitcoin Cash, as a result of a several-year dispute over how to increase the rate of transactions that the Bitcoin network can process. There have been other contentious disputes over changes to the Bitcoin network’s source code, though these have not led to hard forks. For example, the predominant software implementation used to access the Bitcoin network is Bitcoin Core. The October 2025 release of the updated Bitcoin Core client (version 30) removed a long-standing limit on the inclusion of non-transaction-related data in blocks, the effect of which is to permit larger amounts of arbitrary data to be embedded in transactions. This change has prompted debate within the bitcoin community. Because the change is backwards-compatible, rather than a hard fork, certain previous versions of the Bitcoin Core client remain operable, and it remains interoperable with other clients, such as Bitcoin Knots. Some participants have expressed concerns that such changes could facilitate the inclusion of illegal or non-transaction-related content on the Bitcoin blockchain or could introduce new or unknown software vulnerabilities. In response, certain miners and users have reportedly adopted alternative client software implementations to access the Bitcoin network, such as Bitcoin Knots. There is a risk that unresolved divisions could lead to community fragmentation which, if they grew sufficiently severe and were not resolved, eventually a future Bitcoin network hard fork could occur, which may adversely affect the security or stability of the Bitcoin network (such as if miners leave the original Bitcoin network for the forked network), reduce or impede the adoption of bitcoin overall, or cause bitcoin or the Shares to lose value.
A hard fork may adversely affect the price of bitcoin at the time of announcement, adoptionadoption, or subsequently. For example, the announcement of a hard fork could lead to increased demand for the prefork digital asset, in anticipation that ownership of the prefork digital asset would entitle holders to a new digital asset following the fork. The increased demand for the prefork digital asset may cause the price of the digital asset to rise. After the hard fork, it is possible the aggregate price of the two versions of the digital asset running in parallel would be less than the price of the digital asset immediately prior to the fork. Furthermore, while the Sponsor will, as permitted by the terms of the Trust Agreement, determine which network is generally accepted as the Bitcoin network and should therefore be considered the appropriate network for the Trust’s purposes, there is no guarantee that the Sponsor will choose the network and the associated digital asset that is ultimately the most valuable fork. Either of these events could therefore adversely impact the value of the Shares.
Disruptions or other problems in the supply chain for bitcoin mining hardware and difficulties in obtaining new hardware could cause harm to the Bitcoin network.
Manufacture, assembly and delivery of hardware and components for mining operations can be complex and protracted processes, during the course of which various problems could arise, including disruptions or delays in the supply chain, product quality control issues, as well as other external factors.
Mining operations can ordinarily only be profitable if the costs associated with bitcoin mining, including hardware costs, are lower than the price of bitcoin itself. During the course of the normal operation of bitcoin mining facilities, miners and other critical equipment and materials related to data center construction and maintenance, such as containers, switch gears, transformers and cables, will experience ordinary wear and tear and may also face more significant malfunctions. Declines in the condition of miners and other hardware will require bitcoin miners, over time, to repair or replace those miners.
Additionally, as the technology evolves, miners may be required to acquire newer models of mining hardware and machines to remain competitive in the market. Any upgrading process may require substantial capital investment, and miners may face challenges in doing so on a timely and cost-effective basis. The business of bitcoin miners will be subject to limitations inherent within the supply chain of their mining hardware equipment and components, including competitive, governmental, and legal limitations, and other events. For example, many miners will significantly rely on foreign imports to obtain mining hardware equipment and materials. Any global trade disruption, introductions of tariffs, trade barriers and bilateral trade frictions, together with any potential downturns in the global economy resulting therefrom, could adversely affect the necessary supply chains for mining hardware. Depending on the magnitude of such effects on the mining hardware supply chain, shipments of parts for mining hardware, or new mining hardware and equipment, may be delayed.
There are a small number of major suppliers of bitcoin mining hardware globally, and a significant amount of bitcoin mining hardware manufacturing is located in China. Mining hardware manufacturers may fail to supply the mining hardware due to their inability to manufacture sufficient mining hardware, whether due to shortages of components or resources such as semiconductors, or changes of laws and trade restrictions (including export/import restrictions, quotas or tariffs), or due to insolvency, or non-performance or default on their contracts. Trade policies such as export/import restrictions, quotas or tariffs may reduce the ability of bitcoin mining hardware suppliers to supply miners with bitcoin mining hardware or create a shortage or lack of components necessary for their manufacture or repair. If bitcoin miners are unable to source mining hardware from those suppliers (for example due to overwhelming global demand for bitcoin miners, or due to trade restrictions, or other causes) at commercially reasonable prices, or at all, and replacement or substitute sources of bitcoin mining hardware prove to be unavailable, there could be a negative impact on bitcoin mining globally. These could affect the Bitcoin network by making it more difficult for transactions to be confirmed, increase transaction costs, or affect the Bitcoin network’s security, among other negative effects, any of which could negatively affect the value of bitcoin and consequently the Shares.
Further, the first-generation ASIC chips and other critical components for mining equipment may be subject to price fluctuations or shortages. For example, the ASIC chip is the key component of a mining machine as it determines the efficiency of the device. The production of ASIC chips typically requires highly sophisticated silicon wafers, which currently only a small number of fabrication facilities, or wafer foundries, in the world are capable of producing. There have been previous microchip shortages which led to price fluctuations and disruption in the supply of key bitcoin mining hardware components. ASIC chips have recently been subject to supply and demand fluctuations, significant price increases and shortages. Shortages of ASIC chips could create problems in the supply chain for bitcoin mining equipment, negatively affecting the Bitcoin network by making it more difficult for transactions to be confirmed or increasing transaction costs, or even affecting network security, which again could cause the value of bitcoin and the Shares to decline.
The value of the Shares relates directly to the value of bitcoins,bitcoin, the value of which may be highly volatile and subject to fluctuations due to a number of factors.
The value of the Shares relates directly to the value of the bitcoinsbitcoin held by the Trust and fluctuations in the price of bitcoin could adversely affect the value of the Shares. The market price of bitcoin may be highly volatile, and subject to a number of factors, including:
The value of a bitcoin as represented by the Index or other pricing source used by the Trust may also be subject to momentum pricing due to speculation regarding future appreciation in value, leading to greater volatility that could adversely affect the value of the Shares. Momentum pricing typically is associated with growth stocks and other assets whose valuation, as determined by the investing public, accounts for future appreciation in value, if any. The Sponsor believes that momentum pricing of bitcoinsbitcoin has resulted, and may continue to result, in speculation regarding future appreciation in the value of bitcoin, inflating and making the Index more volatile. As a result, bitcoin may be more likely to fluctuate in value due to changing investor confidence, which could impact future appreciation or depreciation in the Index or other pricing source used by the Trust and could adversely affect the value of the Shares.
The bitcoin market globally and in the United States is not subject to comparable regulatory guardrails as exist in regulated securities markets. Furthermore, many bitcoin trading venues lack certain safeguards put in place by exchanges for more traditional assets to enhance the stability of trading on the exchanges and prevent “flash crashes,” such as limit-down circuit breakers.breakers as demonstrated by the October 2025 Flash Crash. As a result, the prices of bitcoin on trading venues may be subject to larger and/or more frequent sudden declines than assets traded on more traditional exchanges. Tools to detect and deter fraudulent or manipulative trading activities such as market manipulation, front-running of trades, and wash-trading may not be available to or employed by digital asset platforms,platforms or may not exist at all. The SEC has identified possible sources of fraud and manipulation in the bitcoin market generally, including, among others (1) “wash trading”;; (2) persons with a dominant position in bitcoin manipulating bitcoin pricing;; (3) hacking of the Bitcoin network and trading platforms;; (4) malicious control of the Bitcoin network;; (5) trading based on material, non-public information (for example, plans of market participants to significantly increase or decrease their holdings in bitcoin, new sources of demand for bitcoin or other events which could affect the price of bitcoin) or based on the dissemination of false and misleading information;; (6) manipulative activity involving purported “stablecoins,” including Tether,Tether (for more information, see “—Prices of bitcoin may be affected due to stablecoins (including Tether and US Dollar Coin (“USDC”)), the activities of stablecoin issuers and their regulatory treatment;”); and (7) fraud and manipulation at bitcoin trading platforms. The effect of potential market manipulation, front-running,front‑running, wash-trading, and other fraudulent or manipulative trading practices may inflate the volumes actually present in cryptodigital marketasset markets and/or cause distortions in price, which could adversely affect the Trust or cause losses to Shareholders.
In addition, over the past several years, some digital asset platforms have been closed due to fraud and manipulative activity, business failure or security breaches. In many of these instances, the customers of such digital asset platforms were not compensated or made whole for the partial or complete losses of their account balances in such digital asset platforms. While, generally speaking, smaller digital asset platforms are less likely to have the infrastructure and capitalization that make larger digital asset platforms more stable, larger digital asset platforms are more likely to be appealing targets for hackers and malware and their shortcomings or ultimate failures are more likely to have contagion effects on the digital asset ecosystem, and therefore may be more likely to be targets of regulatory enforcement action. For example, the collapse of Mt. Gox, which filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan in late February 2014, demonstrated that even the largest digital asset platforms could be subject to abrupt failure with consequences for both users of digital asset platforms and the digital asset industry as a whole. In particular, in the two weeks that followed the February 7, 2014 halt of bitcoin withdrawals from Mt. Gox, the value of one bitcoin fell on other platforms from around $795 on February 6, 2014 to $578 on February 20, 2014. Additionally, in January 2015, Bitstamp announced that approximately 19,000 bitcoin had been stolen from its operational or “hot” wallets. Further, in August 2016, it was reported that almost 120,000 bitcoinsbitcoin worth around $78 million were stolen from Bitfinex, a large digital asset platform. The value of bitcoin and other digital assets immediately decreased over 10% following reports of the theft at Bitfinex. Regulatory enforcement actions have followed, such as in July 2017, when FinCEN assessed a $110 million fine against BTC-E, a now defunct digital asset platform, for facilitating crimes such as drug sales and ransomware attacks. In addition, in December 2017, Yapian, the operator of Seoul-based digital asset platform Youbit, suspended digital asset trading and filed for bankruptcy following a hack that resulted in a loss of 17% of Yapian’s assets. Following the hack, Youbit users were allowed to withdraw approximately 75% of the digital assets in their platform accounts, with any potential further distributions to be made following Yapian’s pending bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, in January 2018, the Japanese digital asset platform, Coincheck, was hacked, resulting in losses of approximately $535 million, and in February 2018, the Italian digital asset platform, Bitgrail, was hacked, resulting in approximately $170 million in losses. In May 2019, one of the world’s largest digital asset platforms, Binance, was hacked, resulting in losses of approximately $40 million. In November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”),FTX, one of the largest digital asset platforms by volume at the time, halted customer withdrawals amid rumors of the company’s liquidity issues and likely insolvency, which were subsequently corroborated by its CEO. Shortly thereafter, FTX’s CEO resigned and FTX and many of its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the United States, while other affiliates have entered insolvency, liquidation, or similar proceedings around the globe, following which the U.S. Department of JusticeDOJ brought criminal fraud and other charges, and the SEC and CFTC brought civil securities and commodities fraud charges, against certain of FTX’s and its affiliates’ senior executives, including its former CEO. Around the same time, there were reports that approximately $300-600 million of digital assets were removed from FTX and the full facts remain unknown, including whether such removal was the result of a hack, theft, insider activity, or other improper behavior. On February 21, 2025, Bybit, a centralized platform for exchanging digital assets, announced that more than $1.4 billion in ether had been stolen from its platform. Hackers were able to manipulate Bybit’s transfer process to authorize and complete the illicit transaction. The incident has resulted in renewed concerns over the security of digital asset platforms.
The CF Benchmarks Index was developed by the Index Administrator and has a limited performance history. Although the Index is based on materially the same methodology (except calculation time) as the Index Administrator’s BRR, which was first introduced in November 2016, the Index itself has only been in operation since February 2022. The Index price is a composite CF Benchmarks Index calculated using volume-weighted trading price data from various Constituent Platforms. The Index has only featured its current list of Constituent Platforms since DecemberMarch 2024.2025. A longer history of actual performance through various economic and market conditions would provide greater and more reliable information for an investor to assess the Index’s performance. The Constituent Platforms chosen by the Index Administrator could also change over time. The Index Administrator may remove or add Constituent Platforms to the CF Benchmark Index in the future at its discretion.
Although the Index is intended to accurately capture the market price of bitcoin, third parties may be able to purchase and sell bitcoin on public or private markets not included among the Constituent Platforms, and such transactions may take place at prices materially higher or lower than the Index price. Moreover, there may be variances in the prices of bitcoin on the various Constituent Platforms, including as a result of differences in fee structures or administrative procedures on different Constituent Platforms. ForCertain example,exchanges within the Bullishlist platformof employsConstituent Platforms employ a proprietary order book combining a traditional limit order book with automated market maker instructions. As their automated market maker relies on a mathematical formula and does not rely on any external pricing data or third partythird-party source, differences in the bids and asks placed by the automated market maker compared to prices offered by other digital currency trading venues, or other external market data sources, for the same digital assets may emerge. While the Index provides a U.S. dollar-denominated composite for the price of bitcoin based on, in the case of the CF Benchmarks Index, the volume-weighted price of a bitcoin on certain Constituent Platforms, at any given time, the prices on each such Constituent Platform or pricing source may not be equal to the value of a bitcoin as represented by the Index. It is possible that the price of bitcoinsbitcoin on the Constituent Platforms could be materially higher or lower than the Index price. To the extent the Index price differs materially from the actual prices available on a Constituent Platform, or the global market price of bitcoin, the price of the Shares may no longer track, whether temporarily or over time, the global market price of bitcoin, which could adversely affect an investment in the Trust by reducing investors’ confidence in the Shares’ ability to track the market price of bitcoins.bitcoin. To the extent such prices differ materially from the Index price, investors may lose confidence in the Shares’ ability to track the market price of bitcoins,bitcoin, which could adversely affect the value of the Shares.
If the Index is not available, the Trust’s holdings may be fair valued on a temporary basis in accordance with the policy approved by the Trustee. To the extent the valuation determined in accordance with the policy approved by the Trustee differs materially from the actual market price of bitcoin, the price of the Shares may no longer track, whether temporarily or over time, the global market price of bitcoin, which could adversely affect an investment in the Trust by reducing investors’ confidence in the Shares’ ability to track the global market price of bitcoins.bitcoin. To the extent such prices differ materially from the market price for bitcoin, investors may lose confidence in the Shares’ ability to track the market price of bitcoins,bitcoin, which could adversely affect the value of the Shares.
If the computers or other facilities of the Index Administrator, data providers and/or relevant constituentConstituent bitcoin platformsPlatforms malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of the CF Benchmarks Index may be delayed. Errors in the CF Benchmarks Index data, the CF Benchmarks Index computations and/or construction may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Trust and the Shareholders. Any of the foregoing may lead to the errors in the CF Benchmarks Index, which may lead to a different investment outcome for the Trust and the Shareholders than would have been the case had such events not occurred.
Competition from central bank digital currencies (“CBDCs”) and emerging payments initiatives involving financial institutions could adversely affect the value of bitcoinsbitcoin and other digital assets.
While the Trust does not invest in stablecoins, it may nonetheless be exposed to risks that stablecoins pose for the bitcoin market and other digital asset markets. Stablecoins are digital assets designed to have a stable value over time as compared to typically volatile digital assets,assets and are typically marketed as being pegged to a fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar, at a certain value. Although the prices of stablecoins are intended to be stable, their market value may fluctuate. This volatility has in the past apparently impacted the price of bitcoin. Stablecoins are a relatively new phenomenon, and it is impossible to know all of the risks that they could pose to participants in the bitcoin market. Like CBDCs, stablecoins could compete with or replace bitcoin and other digital assets as a medium of exchange or store of value. In addition, some have argued that some stablecoins, particularly Tether, are improperly issued without sufficient backing in a way that, when the stablecoin is used to pay for bitcoin, could cause artificial rather than genuine demand for bitcoin, artificially inflating the price of bitcoin, and also argue that those associated with certain stablecoins may be involved in laundering money. On February 17, 2021, the New York Attorney General entered into an agreement with Tether’s operators, requiring them to cease any further trading activity with New York persons and pay $18.5 million in penalties for false and misleading statements made regarding the assets backing Tether. On October 15, 2021, the CFTC announced a settlement with Tether’s operators in which they agreed to pay $42.5 million in fines to settle charges that, among others, Tether’s claims that it maintained sufficient U.S. dollar reserves to back every Tether stablecoin in circulation with the “equivalent amount of corresponding fiat currency” held by Tether were untrue.
Given the foundational role that stablecoins play in global digital asset markets, their fundamental liquidity can have a dramatic impact on the broader digital asset market, including the market for bitcoin. A significant portion of the digital asset market continues to depend on stablecoins such as Tether and USDC. As such, any disruption in the operation or perceived stability of these stablecoins such as a disorderly de-pegging event or a loss of market confidence resulting in a run on reserves could lead to substantial market volatility across digital assets more broadly. Additional risks such as operational failures (e.g., technical issues that prevent settlement), concerns regarding the adequacy or transparency of reserve assets backing stablecoins, the use of unbacked or undercollateralized stablecoins in potentially manipulative trading practices and regulatory scrutiny of stablecoin issuers or intermediaries, including exchanges that facilitate stablecoin transactions, may also adversely affect market confidence and liquidity. Further, these risks are underscored by recent legislative developments. On July 18, 2025, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025 (“GENIUS Act”) was enacted, establishing a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The GENIUS Act will become effective on July 18, 2028. The GENIUS Act prohibits the issuance or use of payment stablecoins unless the issuer obtains a qualifying license and complies with a range of regulatory requirements, including reserve backing with liquid assets, redemption rights, governance standards, and operational transparency. The GENIUS Act also restricts the payment of interest on stablecoins and imposes oversight on both bank and nonbank issuers. The enactment of the GENIUS Act, or the removal or migration of prominent stablecoins from the Bitcoin network, could reduce the willingness of market participants to engage in digital asset transactions that rely on stablecoins, diminish liquidity in the bitcoin market, and adversely affect the price of bitcoin. Any such developments could, in turn, materially and adversely impact the value of the Shares.
Given the foundational role that stablecoins play in global digital asset markets, their fundamental liquidity can have a dramatic impact on the broader digital asset market, including the market for bitcoin. Because a large portion of the digital asset market still depends on stablecoins such as Tether and USDC, there is a risk that a disorderly de-pegging or a run on Tether or USDC could lead to dramatic market volatility in digital assets more broadly. Volatility in stablecoins, operational issues with stablecoins (for example, technical issues that prevent settlement), concerns about the sufficiency of any reserves that support stablecoins or potential manipulative activity when unbacked stablecoins are used to pay for other digital assets (including bitcoin), or regulatory concerns about stablecoin issuers or intermediaries, such as exchanges, that support stablecoins, could impact individuals’ willingness to trade on trading venues that rely on stablecoins, reduce liquidity in the bitcoin market, and affect the value of bitcoin, and in turn impact an investment in the Shares.
Bitcoin was the first digital asset to gain global adoption and critical mass, and as a result, it has a “first to market” advantage over other digital assets. As of the date of this report, bitcoin was the largest digital asset by market capitalization and had the largest combined mining power. Despite this first to market advantage, there were over 10,00017,000 alternative digital assets tracked by CoinMarketCap.com,CoinGecko.com, having a total market capitalization of approximately $3.26$3.0 trillion (including the approximately $1.85$1.8 trillion market capitalization of bitcoin), as calculated using market prices and total available supply of each digital asset. In addition, many consortiums and financial institutions are also researching and investing resources into private or permissioned smart contract platforms rather than open platforms like the Bitcoin network. Competition from the emergence or growth of alternative digital assets and smart contracts platforms, such as Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Polkadot, or Cardano, as well as many others, could have a negative impact on the demand for, and price of, bitcoin and thereby adversely affect the value of the Shares.
A public health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, could adversely affect the economieseconomics of many nations and could have serious negative effects on social, economic and financial systems, including significant uncertainty and volatility in the digital asset markets. For example, digital asset prices, including bitcoin, decreased significantly in the first quarter of 2020 amidst broader market declines as a result of the COVID-19novel coronavirus outbreak.
Cybersecurity incidents may cause disruptions and impact business operations. They may result in any of the following: financial losses (including loss or theft of Trust assets), interference with the Trust’s ability to calculate its NAV, disclosure of confidential information, impediments to trading, submission of erroneous trades or erroneous creation or redemption orders,orders or bitcoin price movements, the inability of the Trust or the Service Providers to transact business, violations of applicable privacy and other laws, regulatory fines, penalties, reputational damage, reimbursement or other compensation costs, and other legal and compliance costs. In addition, cyber incidents may render records of Trust assets and transactions, Shareholder ownership of the Shares, and other data integral to the functioning of the Trust inaccessible, inaccurate or incomplete. The Trust may incur substantial costs in order to resolve or prevent cyber incidents.
The Sponsor, ana indirectconsolidated subsidiary of BlackRock, is responsible for the oversight and overall management of the Trust. The Sponsor relies on BlackRock’s enterprise risk management (“ERM”) framework for the Trust’s cybersecurity risk management and strategy. Although BlackRock has implemented policies and controls, and takes protective measures involving significant expense, to prevent and address potential data breaches, inadvertent disclosures, increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks and cyber-related fraud, there can be no assurance that any of these measures proves fully effective. In addition, a successful cyber-attack may persist for an extended period of time before being detected, and it may take a considerable amount of time for an investigation to be completed and the severity and potential impact to be known. Furthermore, the Trust cannot control the cybersecurity plans and systems of its Service Providers. The Trust and its Shareholders could be negatively impacted as a result.
There may be situations where an Authorized Participant is unable to redeem a Basket of Shares. To the extent the pricevalue of bitcoin decreases, these delays may result in a decrease in the amount the Authorized Participant will receive when the redemption occurs, as well as a reduction in liquidity for all Shareholders in the secondary market.
Although Shares surrendered by Authorized Participants in Basket-size aggregations are redeemable in exchange for the underlying amount of bitcoin or cash proceeds from selling the underlying amount of bitcoin, redemptions may be suspended (i) during any period in which regular trading on NASDAQ is suspended or restricted, or the exchange is closed (other than scheduled holiday or weekend closings), or (ii) during a period when the Sponsor determines that delivery, disposal or evaluation of bitcoin is not reasonably practicable (for example, as a result of an interruption in services or availability of the Prime Execution Agent, the Bitcoin Custodian, the Cash Custodian, the Administrator, the Bitcoin Trading Counterparties, or other service providers to the Trust, act of God, catastrophe, civil disturbance, government prohibition, war, terrorism, strike or other labor dispute, fire, force majeure, interruption in telecommunications, iShares order entry system, Internet services, or network provider services, unavailability of Fedwire, SWIFT or banks’ payment processes, significant technical failure, bug, error, disruption or fork of the Bitcoin network, hacking, cybersecurity breach, or power, Internet, or Bitcoin network outage, or similar event). If any of these events occurs at a time when an Authorized Participant intends to redeem Shares, and the price of bitcoin decreases before such Authorized Participant is able again to surrender for redemption Baskets, such Authorized Participant will sustain a loss with respect to the amount that it would have been able to obtain upon the redemption of its Shares, had the redemption taken place when such Authorized Participant originally intended it to occur. As a consequence, Authorized Participants may reduce their trading in Shares during periods of suspension, decreasing the number of potential buyers of Shares in the secondary market and, therefore, decreasing the price a Shareholder may receive upon sale.
The Trust is an “emerging growth company” and it cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make the Shares less attractive to investors.
The Trust is an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as the Trust continues to be an emerging growth company it may choose to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to emerging public companies, which include, among other things:
The Trust could be an emerging growth company until the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary after its initial public offering, or until the earliest of (1) the last day of the fiscal year in which it has annual gross revenue of $1.235 billion or more, (2) the date on which it has, during the previous three year period, issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt or (3) the date on which it is deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the federal securities laws. The Trust will qualify as a large accelerated filer as of the first day of the first fiscal year after it has (A) more than $700 million in outstanding equity held by nonaffiliates, (B) been public for at least 12 months and (C) filed at least one annual report on Form 10-K.
Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies are also permitted to elect to delay adoption of new or revised accounting standards until companies that are not subject to periodic reporting obligations are required to comply, if such accounting standards apply to non-reporting companies. However, the Trust has chosen to opt out of this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that the decision to opt out of the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards is irrevocable.
The Trust cannot predict if investors will find an investment in the Trust less attractive if it relies on these exemptions.
The lack oflimited ability to facilitate in-kind creations and redemptions of Shares could have adverse consequences for the Trust.
The Trust is currently only able to accept cash purchase orders and redemption orders, which means that an Authorized Participant will deliver only cash to create Shares and will receive only cash when redeeming Shares and the Trust will choose, in its sole discretion, to enter into a transaction with a Bitcoin Trading Counterparty or the Prime Execution Agent to buy or sell bitcoin in exchange for cash. However, and in common with other spot bitcoin exchange‑traded products, the Trust is not at this time able to create and redeem Shares via in‑kind transactions with Authorized Participants in exchange for bitcoin.
Authorized Participants must be registered broker-dealers. Registered broker-dealers are subject to various requirements of the federal securities laws and rules, including financial responsibility rules such as the customer protection rule, the net capital rule and recordkeeping requirements. ThereOn May 15, 2025, the Division of Trading and Markets of the SEC and the Office of General Counsel of FINRA stated that broker-dealers are permitted to facilitate in-kind creations and redemptions in connection with spot crypto exchange-traded products; however, there has yet to be definitive regulatory guidance on whetherthe andspecific details of how registered broker-dealers can comply with theseSEC rules with regard to transacting in or holding spot bitcoin. Until further regulatory clarity emerges regarding whether registered broker-dealers can hold and deal in bitcoin under such rules, there is a risk that registered broker-dealers participating in the in-kind creation or redemption of Shares for bitcoin may be unable to demonstrate compliance with such requirements. While compliance with theserules such as the customer protection rule, the net capital rule and recordkeeping requirements would be the broker-dealer’s responsibility, a national securities exchange is required to enforce compliance by its member broker-dealers with applicable federal securities laws and rules. AsOnly acertain result,Authorized Participants, at present, have the SEC is unlikelyability to permitalso, anthrough exchangetheir affiliates, support in-kind creation and redemption activity. As of the date of this report, Jane Street Capital, LLC, Virtu Americas LLC, JP Morgan Securities LLC, and Marex Capital Markets Inc. have executed agreements that give them the ability to adopt listing rules for a product if it is not clear that the exchange’s members would be able to comply with applicable rules when transacting in the product as designed. To the extent further regulatory clarity emerges, NASDAQ may seek regulatory approval, to amend its listing rules to permit the Trust to create and redeem Shares through in-kindconduct creations and redemptions,redemptions in-kind for bitcoin in which Authorized Participants or their designees would deposit bitcoin directly with the Trust or receive bitcoin directly from the Trust (the “In-Kind Regulatory Approval”). However, there can be no assurance asaddition to whenconducting suchcreations regulatoryand clarityredemptions willfor emerge, or when NASDAQ will seek or obtain this approval, if at all.cash.
To the knowledge of the Sponsor, exchange-traded products for all spot-market commodities other than bitcoin, such as gold and silver, employ in-kind creations and redemptions with the underlying asset. The Sponsor believes that it is generally more efficient, and therefore less costly, for spot commodity exchange-traded products to utilize in-kind orders rather than cash orders, because there are fewer steps in the process and therefore there is less operational risk involved when an authorized participant can manage the buying and selling of the underlying asset itself, rather than depend on an unaffiliated party such as the issuer or sponsor of the exchange-traded product. As such, a spot commodity exchange-traded product that only employs cash creations and redemptions and does not permit in-kind creations and redemptions is a novel product that has not been tested, and could be impacted by any resulting operational inefficiencies.
InEven particular,with the recent approval of in-kind creations and redemptions, the Trust’s inabilitylimited ability to facilitate in-kind creations and redemptions could result in the exchange-traded product arbitrage mechanism failing to function as efficiently as it otherwise would, leading to the potential for the Shares to trade at premiums or discounts to the NAV, and such premiums or discounts could be substantial. See “—The use of cash creations and redemptions, as opposed to in-kind creations and redemptions, may adversely affect the arbitrage transactions by Authorized Participants intended to keep the price of the Shares closely linked to the price of bitcoin and, as a result, the price of the Shares may fall or otherwise diverge from NAV.” Furthermore, if cash creations or redemptions are unavailable, either due to the Sponsor’s decision to reject or suspend such orders, the unavailability of Bitcoin Trading Counterparties or the Prime Execution Agent’s services, or otherwise, itAuthorized Participants will not be possiblelimited forin Authorizedtheir Participantsability to redeem or create Shares, in which case the arbitrage mechanism wouldmay benot unavailable.function as efficiently. This could result in impaired liquidity for the Shares, wider bid/ask spreads in secondary trading of the Shares and greater costs to investors and other market participants. In addition, the Trust’s inabilitylimited ability to facilitate in-kind creations and redemptions, and resulting relative reliance on cash creations and redemptions, could cause the Sponsor to halt or suspend the creation or redemption of Shares during times of market volatility or turmoil, among other consequences.
Any of these factors could adversely affect the performance of the Trust and the value of the Shares.
Even if In-Kind Regulatory Approval were obtained, there can be no assurance that in-kind creations or redemptions of the Shares will be available in the future, or that broker-dealers would be willing to serve as Authorized Participants with respect to the in-kind creation and redemption of Shares. Any of these factors could adversely affect the performance of the Trust and the value of the Shares.
If the processes of creation and redemption of Shares (which depend on timely transfers of bitcoin to and by the Bitcoin Custodian and Prime Execution Agent) encounter any unanticipated difficulties due to, for example, the price volatility of bitcoin, the insolvency, business failure or interruption, default, failure to perform, security breach, or other problems affecting the Prime Execution Agent, Bitcoin Custodian, the Authorized Participants or the Bitcoin Trading Counterparties, the change from the originally contemplated in-kind creations and redemptions to cash creations and redemptions, the closing of bitcoin trading platforms due to fraud, failures, security breaches or otherwise, or network outages or congestion, spikes in transaction fees demanded by miners, or other problems or disruptions affecting the Bitcoin network, then potential market participants, such as the Authorized Participants and their customers, who would otherwise be willing to purchase or redeem Baskets (in the case of Authorized Participants) to take advantage of any arbitrage opportunity arising from discrepancies between the price of the Shares and the price of the underlying bitcoin or to engage in bitcoin transactions (in the case of Bitcoin Trading Counterparties or transactions facilitated by the Prime Execution Agent) may not take the risk that, as a result of those difficulties, they may not be able to realize the profit they expect. In certain such cases, the Trustee may, and upon the direction of the Sponsor shall, suspend the process of creation and redemption of Baskets. During such times, trading spreads, and the resulting premium or discount, on Shares may widen. Alternatively, in the case of a network outage or other problems affecting the Bitcoin network, the processing of transactions on the Bitcoin network may be disrupted, which in turn may prevent Authorized Participants or their designated agent or client, Bitcoin Trading Counterparties from depositing or withdrawing bitcoin from their accounts at the Prime Execution Agent, or prevent the Prime Execution Agent from facilitating bitcoin transactions through its Coinbase Prime service, which in turn could affect the creation or redemption of Baskets. If this is the case, the liquidity of the Shares may decline and the price of the Shares may fluctuate independently of the price of bitcoin and may fall or otherwise diverge from NAV. Furthermore, in the event that the market for bitcoin should become relatively illiquid and thereby materially restrict opportunities for arbitraging, the price of Shares may diverge from the value of bitcoin.
The Investment Company Act is designed to protect investors by preventing insiders from managing investment companies to their benefit and to the detriment of public investors, such as: the issuance of securities having inequitable or discriminatory provisions; the management of investment companies by irresponsible persons; the use of unsound or misleading methods of computing earnings and asset value; changes in the character of investment companies without the consent of investors; and investment companies from engaging in excessive leveraging. To accomplish these ends, the Investment Company Act requires the safekeeping and proper valuation of fund assets, restricts greatly transactions with affiliates, limits leveraging, and imposes governance requirements as a check on fund management.
The Trust will not hold or trade in commodity interests (as currently defined) regulated by the CEA, as administered by the CFTC. Furthermore, the Sponsor believes that the Trust is not a commodity pool for purposes of the CEA, and that neither the Sponsor nor the Trustee is subject to regulation by the CFTC as a commodity pool operator or a commodity trading adviser in connection with the operation of the Trust. Consequently, Shareholders will not have the regulatory protections provided to investors in CEA-regulated instruments or commodity pools. However, Congress is currently considering legislation, such as the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (CLARITY Act), which could give the CFTC greater powers to regulate the spot digital asset market. It is possible that, if legislation is passed, it could require the Trust or the Sponsor, or service providers to the Trust, such as the Prime Execution Agent, Authorized Participants, or Bitcoin Trading Counterparties, among others, to register with the CFTC. Such additional regulatory obligations may cause the Trust, the Trustee, the Sponsor, the Prime Execution Agent, the Authorized Participants or Bitcoin Trading Counterparties to incur extraordinary expenses. If the Trust, the Trustee, the Sponsor, the Prime Execution Agent, the Authorized Participants or the Bitcoin Trading Counterparties decided to seek the required licenses, there is no guarantee that they will timely receive them. The Trustee may decide to discontinue and wind up the Trust. A dissolution of the Trust in response to the changed regulatory circumstances may be at a time that is disadvantageous to the Shareholders. A Bitcoin Trading Counterparty may also instead decide to terminate its role as a Bitcoin Trading Counterparty of the Trust, which may decrease the liquidity of the Shares.
The Trust will not hold or trade in commodity interests regulated by the CEA, as administered by the CFTC. Furthermore, the Sponsor believes that the Trust is not a commodity pool for purposes of the CEA, and that neither the Sponsor nor the Trustee is subject to regulation by the CFTC as a commodity pool operator or a commodity trading adviser in connection with the operation of the Trust. Consequently, Shareholders will not have the regulatory protections provided to investors in CEA-regulated instruments or commodity pools.
Security breaches, computer malware and computer hacking attacks have been a prevalent concern in relation to digital assets. The Sponsor believes that the Trust’s bitcoinsbitcoin held in the Trust’s account at the Bitcoin Custodian or Trading Balance held with the Prime Execution Agent will be an appealing target to hackers or malware distributors seeking to destroy, damage or steal the Trust’s bitcoinsbitcoin and will only become more appealing as the Trust’s assets grow. To the extent that the Trust, the Sponsor orSponsor, the Bitcoin CustodianCustodian, or the Prime Execution Agent is unable to identify and mitigate or stop new security threats or otherwise adapt to technological changes in the digital asset industry, the Trust’s bitcoinsbitcoin may be subject to theft, loss, destruction or other attack.
The Sponsor believes that the security procedures in place for the Trust, including but not limited to, offline storage, or cold storage, multiple encrypted private key “shardsshards,”, and other measures, are reasonably designed to safeguard the Trust’s bitcoins.bitcoin. Nevertheless, the security procedures cannot guarantee the prevention of any loss due to a security breach, software defect or act of God that may be borne by the Trust and the security procedures may not protect against all errors, software flaws or other vulnerabilities in the Trust’s technical infrastructure, which could result in theft, loss or damage of its assets. The Sponsor does not control the Bitcoin Custodian’s or the Prime Execution Agent’s operations or their implementation of such security procedures and there can be no assurance that such security procedures will actually work as designed or prove to be successful in safeguarding the Trust’s assets against all possible sources of theft, loss or damage. Assets not held in cold storage, such as assets held in a trading account, may be more vulnerable to security breach, hacking or loss than assets held in cold storage. Furthermore, assets held in a trading account, including the Trust’s Trading Balance (as defined below) at the Prime Execution Agent, are held on an omnibus, rather than segregated basis, which creates greater risk of loss. Even though bitcoin is only moved into the Trading Balance in connection with and to the extent of transfers to an Authorized Participant or its designated agent or client and purchases and sales of bitcoin by the Trust and such bitcoin is swept from the Trust’s Trading Balance to the Trust’s Vault Balance each trading day pursuant to a regular end-of-day sweep process, there are no policies that would limit the amount of bitcoin that can be held temporarily in the Trading Balance maintained by the Prime Execution Agent. This could create greater risk of loss of the Trust’s bitcoin, which could cause Shareholders to suffer losses.
The security procedures and operational infrastructure may be breached due to the actions of outside parties, error or malfeasance of an employee of the Sponsor, the Bitcoin Custodian, or otherwise, and, as a result, an unauthorized party may obtain access to the Trust’s account at the Bitcoin Custodian, the relevant private keys (and therefore bitcoin) or other data or property of the Trust. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees of the SponsorSponsor, or the Bitcoin Custodian to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to the Trust’s infrastructure. As the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently, or may be designed to remain dormant until a predetermined event and often are not recognized until launched against a target, the SponsorSponsor, and the Bitcoin Custodian may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures.
Bitcoin transactions are irrevocable and stolen or incorrectly transferred bitcoinsbitcoin may be irretrievable. As a result, any incorrectly executed bitcoin transactions could adversely affect the value of the Shares.
Such events have occurred in connection with digital assets in the past. For example, in September 2014, the Chinese digital asset platform Huobi announced that it had sent approximately 900 bitcoinsbitcoin and 8,000 Litecoins (worth approximately $400,000 at the prevailing market prices at the time) to the wrong customers. To the extent that the Trust is unable to seek a corrective transaction with such third-partythird party or is incapable of identifying the third-partythird party which has received the Trust’s bitcoinsbitcoin through error or theft, the Trust will be unable to revert or otherwise recover incorrectly transferred bitcoins.bitcoin. The Trust will also be unable to convert or recover its bitcoinsbitcoin transferred to uncontrolled accounts. To the extent that the Trust is unable to seek redress for such error or theft, such loss could adversely affect the value of the Shares.
If the Custodian Agreement, the Prime Execution Agent Agreement, anthe Authorized Participant AgreementAgreements or Bitcoin Trading Counterparty AgreementAgreements isare terminated or the Bitcoin Custodian, the Prime Execution Agent, anthe Authorized Participant or athe Bitcoin Trading Counterparty fails to provide services as required, the Trustee may operationalize the Additional Bitcoin Custodian, or may need to find and appoint a replacement custodian, an execution agent, authorized participantparticipants or bitcoin trading counterparty, which could pose a challenge to the safekeeping of the Trust’s bitcoins,bitcoin, the Trust’s ability to create and redeem Shares and the Trust’s ability to continue to operate may be adversely affected.
The Trust is dependent on the Bitcoin Custodian, which is Coinbase Custody, and the Prime Execution Agent, Coinbase Inc. to operate.hold bitcoin. Coinbase Custody performs essential functions in terms of safekeeping the Trust’s bitcoin in the Vault Balance, and its affiliate, Coinbase Inc., in its capacity as Prime Execution Agent, facilitates the buying and selling or settlement of bitcoin by the Trust in connection with cash creations and redemptions, the selling of bitcoin to pay the Sponsor’s Fee, any other Trust expenses, to the extent applicable, and in extraordinary circumstances, to liquidate the Trust’s bitcoin. If Coinbase Custody or Coinbase Inc. fails to perform the functions they perform for the Trust, the Trust may be unable to operate or create or redeem Baskets, which could force the Trust to liquidate or adversely affect the price of the Shares.
On March 22, 2023, the Prime Execution Agent and its parent, Coinbase Global, Inc. (such parent, “Coinbase Global” and together with Coinbase Inc., the “Relevant Coinbase Entities”) received a “Wells Notice” from the SEC staff stating that the SEC staff made a “preliminary determination” to recommend that the SEC file an enforcement action against the Relevant Coinbase Entities alleging violations of the federal securities laws, including the Exchange Act and the Securities Act. According to Coinbase Global’s public reporting company disclosure, based on discussions with the SEC staff, the Relevant Coinbase Entities believe these potential enforcement actions would relate to aspects of the Relevant Coinbase Entities’ Coinbase Prime service, spot market, staking service Coinbase Earn, and Coinbase Wallet, and the potential civil action may seek injunctive relief, disgorgement, and civil penalties. On June 6, 2023, the SEC filed a complaint against the Relevant Coinbase Entities in federal district court in the Southern District of New York, alleging, inter alia: (i) that Coinbase Inc. has violated the Exchange Act by failing to register with the SEC as a national securities exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency, in connection with activities involving certain identified digital assets that the SEC’s complaint allegesasserted arewere securities, (ii) that Coinbase Inc. hashad violated the Securities Act by failing to register with the SEC the offer and sale of its staking program, and (iii) that Coinbase Global iswas jointly and severally liable as a control person under the Exchange Act for Coinbase Inc.’s violations of the Exchange Act to the same extent as Coinbase Inc. The SEC’s complaint against the Relevant Coinbase Entities doesdid not allege that bitcoin is a security nor doesdid it allege that Coinbase Inc’s activities involving bitcoin caused the alleged registration violations, and the Bitcoin Custodian was not named as a defendant. The SEC’s complaint seekssought a permanent injunction against the Relevant Coinbase Entities to prevent them from violations of the Exchange Act or Securities Act, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, and such other relief as the court deemsdeemed appropriate or necessary. On February 27, 2025, the SEC and Coinbase Inc. and Coinbase Global filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the case with prejudice, and the case has been dismissed. Notwithstanding the dismissal of the SEC enforcement action, Coinbase Inc. is currently—and, together with the Bitcoin Custodian, may from time to time be—subject to a variety of other litigation in the future. Although the Trust does not presently anticipate such an outcome, there can be no assurance that in the future Coinbase Inc., as the Prime Execution Agent, couldor Coinbase Custody, as Bitcoin Custodian, will not be required, as a result of a judicial determination, or couldwill not choose, to restrict or curtail the services itthey offers,offer, or itstheir financial condition and ability to provide services to the Trust couldwill not be negatively affected. If in the future the Prime Execution Agent or the Bitcoin Custodian were to be required or choose, as a result of a regulatory action (including, for example, the litigation initiated by the SEC),choose to restrict or curtail the services itthey offers,offer for any reason, whether related to litigation or otherwise, it could negatively affect the Trust’s ability to operate or process creations or redemptions of Baskets, which could force the Trust to liquidate or adversely affect the price of the Shares. While the Bitcoin Custodian is not named in the complaint, if Coinbase Global, as the parent of the Bitcoin Custodian, is required, as a result of a judicial determination, or could choose, to restrict or curtail the services its subsidiaries provide to the Trust, or its financial condition is negatively affected, it could negatively affect the Trust’s ability to operate.
Management's Discussion & Analysis (MD&A)
New heading “The Year Ended December 31, 2025”
Largest changes
“The Trust’s net asset value increased from $51,519,566,547 at December 31, 2024 to $67,401,155,244 at December 31, 2025, a 30.83% increase. The increase in the Trust’s net asset value resulted primarily from an increase in the number of outstanding Shares, which rose from 970,440,000 Shares at December 31, 2024 to 1,358,680,000 Shares at December 31, 2025, a consequence of 623,640,000 Shares (15,591 Baskets) being created and 235,400,000 Shares (5,885 Baskets) being redeemed during the year. …”see in full comparison
“Net decrease in net assets resulting from operations for the year ended December 31, 2025 was $8,968,686,985, resulting from an unrealized loss on investment in bitcoin of $11,437,550,471 and a net investment loss of $174,563,824, partially offset by a net realized gain of $41,985,070 from bitcoin sold to pay expenses, a net realized gain of $2,110,644,201 from bitcoin sold for the redemption of Shares and a net realized gain of $490,798,039 from bitcoin paid for the in-kind redemptions of Shares. Other than the net Sponsor’s Fee of $174,563,824, the Trust had no expenses during the year.”see in full comparison
“The 6.55% decrease in the NAV for purposes of the Trust’s periodic financial statements (“Financial Statement NAV”) from $53.09 at December 31, 2024 to $49.61 at December 31, 2025 is directly related to the 6.32% decrease in the price of bitcoin. The Financial Statement NAV decreased slightly more than the price of bitcoin on a percentage basis due to the net Sponsor’s Fee, which was $174,563,824 for the year, or 0.25% of the Trust’s average weighted assets of $69,896,349,409 during the year.”see in full comparison
Net increase in net assets resulting from operations for the year ended December 31, 2024 was $14,232,135,930, resulting fromsee in full comparisonan unrealized gain on investment in bitcoin of $14,157,070,942,a net realized gain of $18,811,883 from bitcoin sold to payexpenses andexpenses, a net realized gain of $103,751,770 from bitcoin sold for the redemption ofShares,Shares and an unrealized gain on investment in bitcoin of $14,157,070,942, partially offset by a net investment loss of $47,498,665. Other than the net Sponsor’s Fee of $47,498,665, the Trust had no expenses during the period.
The Trust is a Delaware statutory trust. The Trust does not have any officers, directors, or employees, and is administered by thesee in full comparisonSecondThird Amended and Restated Trust Agreement dated as ofDecemberJune28,27,2023,2025, among the Sponsor, the Trustee and the DelawareTrustee, as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto, with effect from August 8, 2024.Trustee. The Trust issues Shares representing fractional undivided beneficial interests in its net assets. The assets of the Trust consist primarily of bitcoin held by a custodian on behalf of the Trust.
Full comparison: every changed paragraph (12)
This information should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes to financial statements included with this report. The discussion and analysis that follows may contain statements that relate to future events or future performance. In some cases, such forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “may,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially. These statements are based upon certain assumptions and analyses made by the Sponsor on the basis of its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Whether or not actual results and developments will conform to the Sponsor’s expectations and predictions,predictions; however, is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the special considerations discussed below, general economic, market and business conditions, changes in laws or regulations, including those concerning taxes, made by governmental authorities or regulatory bodies, and other world economic and political developments. Although the Sponsor does not make forward-looking statements unless it believes it has a reasonable basis for doing so, the Sponsor cannot guarantee their accuracy. Except as required by applicable disclosure laws, neither the Trust nor the Sponsor is under a duty to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform such statements to actual results or to a change in the Sponsor’s expectations or predictions.
The Trust is a Delaware statutory trust. The Trust does not have any officers, directors, or employees, and is administered by the SecondThird Amended and Restated Trust Agreement dated as of DecemberJune 28,27, 2023,2025, among the Sponsor, the Trustee and the Delaware Trustee, as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto, with effect from August 8, 2024.Trustee. The Trust issues Shares representing fractional undivided beneficial interests in its net assets. The assets of the Trust consist primarily of bitcoin held by a custodian on behalf of the Trust.
On each Business Day, as soon as practicable after 4:00 p.m. ET, the Trust evaluates the bitcoin held by the Trust as reflected by the CF Benchmarks Index and determines the net asset value of the Trust and the NAV. For purposes of making these calculations, a Business Day means any day other than a day when NASDAQ is closed for regular trading. The CF Benchmarks Index is calculated as of 4:00 p.m. ET. The CF Benchmarks Index is designed based on the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks and is a Registered Benchmark under the UK BMR. The Index Administrator is a UK incorporated company authorized and regulated by the FCA of the UK as a Benchmark Administrator under the UK BMR.
The Trust is not aware of any trends, demands, conditions or events that are reasonably likely to result in material changes to its liquidity needs. In exchange for a fee, the Sponsor has agreed to assume most of the expenses incurred by the Trust. ForAs a result, the only ordinary expense of the Trust during the period covered by this report,report was the Trust did not incur any Sponsor’s Fee. The Trust’s only source of liquidity is its sales of bitcoin.
The Year Ended December 31, 2025
The Trust’s net asset value increased from $51,519,566,547 at December 31, 2024 to $67,401,155,244 at December 31, 2025, a 30.83% increase. The increase in the Trust’s net asset value resulted primarily from an increase in the number of outstanding Shares, which rose from 970,440,000 Shares at December 31, 2024 to 1,358,680,000 Shares at December 31, 2025, a consequence of 623,640,000 Shares (15,591 Baskets) being created and 235,400,000 Shares (5,885 Baskets) being redeemed during the year. The increase in the Trust’s net asset value was partially offset by a decrease in the price of bitcoin, which fell 6.32% from $93,365.36 at December 31, 2024 to $87,463.03 at December 31, 2025.
The 6.55% decrease in the NAV for purposes of the Trust’s periodic financial statements (“Financial Statement NAV”) from $53.09 at December 31, 2024 to $49.61 at December 31, 2025 is directly related to the 6.32% decrease in the price of bitcoin. The Financial Statement NAV decreased slightly more than the price of bitcoin on a percentage basis due to the net Sponsor’s Fee, which was $174,563,824 for the year, or 0.25% of the Trust’s average weighted assets of $69,896,349,409 during the year.
The NAV of $71.32 on October 6, 2025 was the highest during the year, compared with a low during the year of $43.60 on April 8, 2025.
Net decrease in net assets resulting from operations for the year ended December 31, 2025 was $8,968,686,985, resulting from an unrealized loss on investment in bitcoin of $11,437,550,471 and a net investment loss of $174,563,824, partially offset by a net realized gain of $41,985,070 from bitcoin sold to pay expenses, a net realized gain of $2,110,644,201 from bitcoin sold for the redemption of Shares and a net realized gain of $490,798,039 from bitcoin paid for the in-kind redemptions of Shares. Other than the net Sponsor’s Fee of $174,563,824, the Trust had no expenses during the year.
The 112.36% increase in the NAV for purposes of the Trust’s periodic financial statements (“Financial Statement NAV”) from $25.00 at December 31, 2023 to $53.09 at December 31, 2024 is directly related to the 112.78% increase in the price of bitcoin. The Financial Statement NAV increased slightly less than the price of bitcoin on a percentage basis due to the Sponsor’s Fee, which was $47,498,665 for the period, or 0.22% of the Trust’s average weighted assets of $21,516,137,559 during the period.
Net increase in net assets resulting from operations for the year ended December 31, 2024 was $14,232,135,930, resulting from an unrealized gain on investment in bitcoin of $14,157,070,942, a net realized gain of $18,811,883 from bitcoin sold to pay expenses andexpenses, a net realized gain of $103,751,770 from bitcoin sold for the redemption of Shares,Shares and an unrealized gain on investment in bitcoin of $14,157,070,942, partially offset by a net investment loss of $47,498,665. Other than the net Sponsor’s Fee of $47,498,665, the Trust had no expenses during the period.
On January 5, 2024, the Seed Shares were redeemed for cash and the Seed Capital Investor purchased the Seed Creation Baskets, comprising of 400,000 Shares at a per-Share price of $25.00. Total proceeds to the Trust from the sale of the Seed Creation Baskets were $10,000,000.$10 million. On January 5, 2024, the Trust purchased 227.90250 bitcoin with the proceeds of the Seed Creation Baskets using the Prime Execution Agent.
What changed in the latest 10-Q
Risk Factors
New heading “The trading prices of many digital assets, including bitcoin, have experienced extreme volatility in recent periods and may continue to do so. Extreme volatility in the future, including further declines in the trading prices of bitcoin, could have a material adverse effect on the value of the Shares and the Shares could lose all or substantially all of their value.”
New heading “The value of the Shares is subject to a number of factors relating to the fundamental investment characteristics of bitcoin as a digital asset, including the fact that digital assets are bearer instruments and loss, theft, or compromise of the associated private keys could result in permanent loss of the asset, and the capabilities and development of blockchain technologies such as the Bitcoin blockchain.”
New heading “Regulatory changes or actions in foreign jurisdictions may affect the value of the Shares or restrict the use of one or more digital assets, mining activity or the operation of their networks or the digital asset platform market in a manner that adversely affects the value of the Shares.”
Largest changes
“Extreme volatility may persist and the value of the Shares may significantly decline in the future without recovery. The digital asset markets may still be experiencing a bubble or may experience a bubble again in the future. For example, in the first half of 2022, each of Celsius Network, Voyager Digital Ltd., and Three Arrows Capital declared bankruptcy, resulting in a loss of confidence in participants of the digital asset ecosystem and negative publicity surrounding digital assets more broadly. In November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. …”see in full comparison
“Foreign laws, regulations or directives may conflict with those of the United States and may negatively impact the acceptance of one or more digital assets by users, merchants and service providers outside the United States and may therefore impede the growth or sustainability of the digital asset economy in the European Union, China, Japan, Russia and the United States and globally, or otherwise negatively affect the value of bitcoin. …”see in full comparison
“A number of foreign jurisdictions have recently taken regulatory action aimed at digital asset activities. China has made transacting in crypto assets illegal for Chinese citizens in mainland China, and additional restrictions may follow. Both China and South Korea have banned initial coin offerings entirely and regulators in other jurisdictions, including Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, have opined that initial coin offerings may constitute securities offerings subject to local securities regulations. …”see in full comparison
“The value of the Shares is subject to a number of factors relating to the fundamental investment characteristics of bitcoin as a digital asset, including the fact that digital assets are bearer instruments and loss, theft, or compromise of the associated private keys could result in permanent loss of the asset, and the capabilities and development of blockchain technologies such as the Bitcoin blockchain.”see in full comparison
“Market expectations regarding the administration, Congress, federal regulators, or future legislation or rulemaking may contribute to increases in digital asset prices or valuations. There can be no assurance that those expectations will be realized, that any enacted or proposed legislation or regulation will benefit the digital asset industry generally or bitcoin specifically, or that digital asset prices will rise or maintain their current levels. …”see in full comparison
“The trading prices of many digital assets, including bitcoin, have experienced extreme volatility in recent periods and may continue to do so. Extreme volatility in the future, including further declines in the trading prices of bitcoin, could have a material adverse effect on the value of the Shares and the Shares could lose all or substantially all of their value.”see in full comparison
Full comparison: every changed paragraph (17)
The trading prices of many digital assets, including bitcoin, have experienced extreme volatility in recent periods and may continue to do so. Extreme volatility in the future, including further declines in the trading prices of bitcoin, could have a material adverse effect on the value of the Shares and the Shares could lose all or substantially all of their value.
The trading prices of many digital assets, including bitcoin, have experienced extreme volatility in recent periods and may continue to do so. The average annualized one-year trailing volatility of bitcoin over the past ten years to date remains elevated at 64.02%. Over the course of 2021, there were steep increases in the value of certain digital assets, including bitcoin, and multiple market observers asserted that digital assets were experiencing a “bubble.” These increases were followed by steep drawdowns throughout 2022 in digital asset trading prices, including for bitcoin. In the 2021-2022 cycle, the price of bitcoin peaked at $67,734 and bottomed at $15,632, marking a steep 77% drawdown. After reaching an all-time high of approximately $126,000 in October 2025, the price of bitcoin declined to below $60,000 in June 2026, representing a drawdown of more than 50%, and there can be no assurance that the price of bitcoin will not decline further. These episodes of rapid price appreciation followed by steep drawdowns have occurred multiple times throughout bitcoin’s history, including in 2011, 2013-2014, and 2017-2018, before repeating again in 2021-2022, 2024, and 2025-2026. Bitcoin has continued to experience significant volatility, and significant price declines, since late 2025. For example, bitcoin lost approximately 14% of its value according to some sources in mid-October 2025 as part of wider digital asset market turmoil, widely attributed to global trade tensions, which triggered a number of dislocations in the digital asset market (the “October 2025 Flash Crash”), including liquidations of up to $20 billion in collateral in the form of various digital assets (including, but not limited to, bitcoin) securing trades (particularly perpetual futures contracts and various forms of financing transactions), along with reported service interruptions, halted orders, forced unwinding of trades, and other issues, across centralized and decentralized exchanges. Digital asset prices, including the price of bitcoin, declined significantly during the first half of 2026, and during the second quarter of 2026, U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded products, including the Trust, experienced their largest quarterly net outflows since such products launched in January 2024, according to some sources. As of the date of this report, the price of bitcoin remains significantly below its October 2025 all-time high, and digital asset prices continue to fluctuate significantly.
Extreme volatility may persist and the value of the Shares may significantly decline in the future without recovery. The digital asset markets may still be experiencing a bubble or may experience a bubble again in the future. For example, in the first half of 2022, each of Celsius Network, Voyager Digital Ltd., and Three Arrows Capital declared bankruptcy, resulting in a loss of confidence in participants of the digital asset ecosystem and negative publicity surrounding digital assets more broadly. In November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”), one of the largest digital asset platforms by volume at the time, halted customer withdrawals amid rumors of the company’s liquidity issues and likely insolvency, which were subsequently corroborated by its CEO. Shortly thereafter, FTX’s CEO resigned and FTX and many of its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the United States, while other affiliates have entered insolvency, liquidation, or similar proceedings around the globe, following which the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) brought criminal fraud and other charges, and the SEC and CFTC brought civil securities and commodities fraud charges, against certain of FTX’s and its affiliates’ senior executives, including its former CEO. In addition, several other entities in the digital asset industry filed for bankruptcy following FTX’s bankruptcy filing, such as BlockFi Inc. and Genesis Global Capital, LLC (“Genesis”). Since these events, (collectively, the “2022 Events”), regulatory actions continued. In April 2025, the DOJ issued a policy memo ending “regulation by prosecution” for crypto actors, refocusing on fraud, illicit finance, and aligning enforcement with executive directives. Acting CFTC Chairman directed staff to follow the DOJ’s new policy, pausing certain prosecutions. In July 2025, BlockFi reached a $35 million settlement with the DOJ, clearing legal hurdles for creditor distributions. As a result of these events, the digital asset markets have experienced extreme price volatility and other entities in the digital asset industry have been, and may continue to be, negatively affected, further undermining confidence in the digital asset markets. These events have also negatively impacted the liquidity of the digital asset markets as certain entities affiliated with FTX engaged in significant trading activity. If the liquidity of the digital asset markets continues to be negatively impacted by these events, digital asset prices, including bitcoin, may continue to experience significant volatility or price declines and confidence in the digital asset markets may be further undermined. In addition, following the 2022 Events, regulatory and enforcement scrutiny of the digital asset industry increased, including from, among others, the DOJ, the SEC, the CFTC, the White House and Congress, as well as state regulators and authorities, and the digital asset industry remains subject to significant attention from regulators, legislators and policymakers. These events are continuing to develop and the full facts are continuing to emerge. It is not possible to predict at this time all of the risks that they may pose to the Trust, its service providers or to the digital asset industry as a whole.
The prices of some digital assets, including bitcoin, may continue to fluctuate in response to actual or perceived political, legislative, regulatory and enforcement developments in the United States. Following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the current administration has stated policy positions and taken actions that some market participants may view as supportive of the digital asset industry, including actions directed at promoting U.S. leadership in digital assets and financial technology and encouraging greater regulatory clarity for blockchain technology and digital assets. In addition, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025 (“GENIUS Act”), which establishes a federal framework for payment stablecoins, was enacted in July 2025. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (the “CLARITY Act”), which is intended to establish a federal market-structure framework for certain digital assets, passed the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2025 and was advanced by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in May 2026. In July 2026, Senate Republicans released updated bill text for the CLARITY Act. Although negotiations regarding the legislation remain ongoing, the CLARITY Act has not been enacted, and its prospects remain uncertain.
Market expectations regarding the administration, Congress, federal regulators, or future legislation or rulemaking may contribute to increases in digital asset prices or valuations. There can be no assurance that those expectations will be realized, that any enacted or proposed legislation or regulation will benefit the digital asset industry generally or bitcoin specifically, or that digital asset prices will rise or maintain their current levels. Delays in, changes to, or adverse developments relating to implementation of the GENIUS Act, enactment of the CLARITY Act or similar legislation, or other federal or state regulatory actions could negatively affect market sentiment, liquidity, trading activity, or the prices of digital assets, including bitcoin. Any resulting decline in the price of bitcoin could cause a reduction in the value of the Shares and cause Shareholders to suffer losses. Moreover, there can be no assurance that political sentiments toward the digital asset industry, or market perceptions of those sentiments, will not shift over time.
On March 6, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order for the “Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile” (the “Order”). The Order requires the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “U.S. Treasury Department”) to establish two offices to administer and maintain a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” (the “Bitcoin Reserve”) and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile (the “Digital Asset Stockpile”), respectively. The Bitcoin Reserve is intended to be capitalized with bitcoin forfeited as part of U.S. criminal or civil proceedings or in satisfaction of penalties imposed by executive agencies. The Digital Asset Stockpile is intended to be capitalized initially with other digital assets forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. Following the issuance of the Order, bitcoin markets developed expectations that the United States may begin acquiring and holding bitcoin, which many viewed as a positive development for bitcoin prices. The Order directs the Secretaries of the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Commerce to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin for the Bitcoin Reserve. Legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives that would direct the acquisition of one million bitcoin by the federal government over a five-year period, to be held in trust in secure storage by the U.S. Treasury. The bill proposed funding the bitcoin acquisition using remittances from the Federal Reserve, revaluations of Federal Reserve gold certificates, and other mechanisms characterized as budget-neutral (such as transfers from federal agencies using bitcoin acquired through asset forfeitures). In May 2026, legislation styled the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would, among other things, establish the Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile in statute and require the consolidation of digital assets held by federal agencies within the U.S. Treasury Department. Bills were also introduced in several state legislatures to authorize the acquisition of bitcoin by state governments or their instrumentalities, some of which have failed to pass. As of the date of this report, these initiatives remain subject to significant uncertainty. While some administrative steps have reportedly been taken, there is no assurance that the federal government or any state government will announce or implement bitcoin acquisition plans, or that any such plans will meet market expectations. Even if government acquisitions occur or legislation requiring acquisitions is enacted, the price of bitcoin may decline if there are implementation challenges, unexpected difficulties, policy or legal reversals, or changes in political priorities, any of which may negatively impact Share value. Executive orders such as the Order are subject to change and can be reversed or overturned. The enduring existence and size of the Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile, and the passage and implementation of legislation at the federal or state level, remain subject to complex challenges and uncertainty that make it difficult to evaluate their effect on the value of bitcoin and the Shares, now or in the future.
Extreme volatility in the future, including further declines in the trading prices of bitcoin, could have a material adverse effect on the value of the Shares and the Shares could lose all or substantially all of their value. The Trust is not actively managed and will not take any actions to take advantage of, or mitigate the impacts of, volatility in the price of bitcoin.
The value of the Shares is subject to a number of factors relating to the fundamental investment characteristics of bitcoin as a digital asset, including the fact that digital assets are bearer instruments and loss, theft, or compromise of the associated private keys could result in permanent loss of the asset, and the capabilities and development of blockchain technologies such as the Bitcoin blockchain.
Digital assets such as bitcoin were only introduced in 2009, and the value of the Shares is subject to a number of factors relating to the capabilities and development of blockchain technologies over time, such as the recentness of their development, their dependence on the internet and other technologies, their dependence on the role played by users, developers and miners and the potential for malicious activity. For example, the realization of one or more of the following risks could materially adversely affect the value of the Shares:
Moreover, because digital assets, including bitcoin, have been in existence for a short period of time and are continuing to develop, there may be additional risks in the future that are impossible to predict as of the date of this report.
As part of determining whether bitcoin is a security for purposes of the federal securities laws, the Sponsor takes into account a number of factors, including the various definitions of “security” under the federal securities laws and federal court decisions interpreting elements of these definitions, such as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in the Howey and Reves cases, as well as reports, orders, press releases, public statements and speeches by the SEC and its staff providing guidance on when a digital asset may be a security for purposes of the federal securities laws, and other materials relevant to the status of bitcoin as a security (or not). Finally, the Sponsor discusses the security status of bitcoin with its securities lawyers. Through this process the Sponsor believes that it is applying the proper legal standards in making a good faith determination that it believes bitcoin is not presently a security under the federal law notwithstanding the uncertainties inherent in the Howey and Reves tests. However,In becauselight of these uncertainties and the fact-based nature of the analysis, the Sponsor acknowledges that bitcoin may currently be a security, based on the facts as they exist today, or may in the future be found by the SEC or a federal court to be a security under the federal securities laws notwithstanding the Sponsor’s prior conclusion; and the Sponsor’s prior conclusion, even if reasonable under the circumstances and made in good faith, would not preclude legal or regulatory action based on the presence of a security.
Regulatory changes or actions in foreign jurisdictions may affect the value of the Shares or restrict the use of one or more digital assets, mining activity or the operation of their networks or the digital asset platform market in a manner that adversely affects the value of the Shares.
Various foreign jurisdictions have adopted, and may continue to adopt laws, regulations or directives that affect digital asset networks (including the Bitcoin network), the digital asset markets (including the bitcoin market), and their users, particularly digital asset platforms and service providers that fall within such jurisdictions’ regulatory scope. For example, if China or other foreign jurisdictions were to ban or otherwise restrict manufacturers’ ability to produce or sell semiconductors or hard drives in connection with bitcoin mining, it would have a material adverse effect on digital asset networks (including the Bitcoin network), the digital asset market, and as a result, impact the value of the Shares.
A number of foreign jurisdictions have recently taken regulatory action aimed at digital asset activities. China has made transacting in crypto assets illegal for Chinese citizens in mainland China, and additional restrictions may follow. Both China and South Korea have banned initial coin offerings entirely and regulators in other jurisdictions, including Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, have opined that initial coin offerings may constitute securities offerings subject to local securities regulations. In May 2021, the Chinese government announced renewed efforts to restrict crypto asset trading and mining activities. Regulators in the Inner Mongolia and other regions of China have proposed regulations that would create penalties for companies engaged in crypto asset mining activities and introduce heightened energy saving requirements on industrial parks, data centers and power plants providing electricity to crypto asset miners. The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority published final rules in October 2020 banning the sale of derivatives and exchange traded notes that reference certain types of digital assets, contending that they are “ill-suited” to retail investors citing extreme volatility, valuation challenges and association with financial crime. The United Kingdom’s Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (the “FSMA”) received royal assent in June 2023. According to publicly available government materials, the FSMA brings digital asset activities within the scope of existing laws governing financial institutions, markets and assets. In addition, the Parliament of the European Union approved the text of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (“MiCA”) in April 2023, establishing a regulatory framework for digital asset services across the European Union. Certain parts of MiCA became effective as of June 2024 and the remainder became effective as of December 2024. MiCA is intended to serve as a comprehensive regulation of digital asset markets and imposes various obligations on digital asset issuers and service providers. The main aims of MiCA are industry regulation, consumer protection, prevention of market abuse and upholding the integrity of digital asset markets.
Foreign laws, regulations or directives may conflict with those of the United States and may negatively impact the acceptance of one or more digital assets by users, merchants and service providers outside the United States and may therefore impede the growth or sustainability of the digital asset economy in the European Union, China, Japan, Russia and the United States and globally, or otherwise negatively affect the value of bitcoin. Moreover, other events, such as the interruption in telecommunications or internet services, cyber-related terrorist acts, civil disturbances, war or other catastrophes, could also negatively affect the digital asset economy in one or more jurisdictions. For example, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 led to volatility in digital asset prices, with an initial steep decline followed by a sharp rebound in prices. The effect of any future regulatory change or other events on the Trust or bitcoin is impossible to predict, and such change could be substantial and adverse to the Trust and the value of the Shares.
Furthermore, legal claims have been filed in the United Kingdom by an entity associated with an individual named Craig Wright. The entity alleges that the private keys to bitcoin purportedly worth several billion dollars were rendered inaccessible to it in a hack, and advances a series of novel legal theories in support of its request that the court compel certain core developers associated with the Bitcoin network to either somehow transfer the bitcoin out of the bitcoin address to which the entity no longer can access the private keys to a new bitcoin address that it currently does control, or alternatively amend the source code to the Bitcoin network itself to restore its access to the stranded bitcoin. In 2022, the High Court dismissed the claims, finding that the entity had not established a serious issue to be tried. However, in February 2023, the Court of Appeals unanimously overruled the High Court’s decision, holding that there was a serious issue to be tried. If a court decides to grant the relief requested, it is possible that wide-ranging and fundamental changes to the source code, operations, and governance of, and basic principles underlying, the Bitcoin network might be required, and a loss of public confidence in the Bitcoin network could result. Alternatively, bitcoin could face obstacles to use or in the United Kingdom, which could reduce adoption. Courts in other jurisdictions could take similar positions. These or other possible outcomes could lead to a decrease in the value of bitcoin, which could negatively impact the value of the Shares.
Current and future federal or state legislation, CFTC and SEC rulemaking and other regulatory developments may impact the manner in which bitcoin is treated. In particular, although the Interpretive Release classified bitcoin as a digital commodity and not a security under U.S. federal securities laws, bitcoin may nonetheless in the future be classified by the CFTC as a “commodity interest” under the CEA,CEA or a court or a future SEC administration could conclude that bitcoin is a “security” under U.S. federal securities laws notwithstanding the Interpretive Release. The Sponsor, the Trustee and the Trust cannot be certain as to how future regulatory developments will impact the treatment of bitcoin under the law. In the face of such developments, the required registrations and compliance steps may result in extraordinary, nonrecurring expenses to the Trust. If the TrusteeSponsor decides to terminate the Trust in response to the changed regulatory circumstances, the Trust may be dissolved or liquidated at a time that is disadvantageous to Shareholders.
Management's Discussion & Analysis (MD&A)
New heading “The Six-Month Period Ended June 30, 2026”
Largest changes
“The Trust’s net asset value decreased from $67,401,155,244 at December 31, 2025 to $43,386,012,125 at June 30, 2026, a 35.63% decrease. The decrease in the Trust’s net asset value resulted primarily from a decrease in the price of bitcoin, which fell 32.43% from $87,463.03 at December 31, 2025 to $59,101.49 at June 30, 2026. …”see in full comparison
“The net decrease in net assets resulting from operations for the six months ended June 30, 2026 was $22,176,575,273, resulting from a net realized loss of $12,472,332 from bitcoin sold to pay expenses, a net realized loss of $1,305,083,253 from bitcoin sold for the redemption of Shares, a net realized loss of $460,163,388 from bitcoin paid for the in-kind redemptions of Shares, an unrealized loss on investment in bitcoin of $20,326,744,261 and a net investment loss of $72,112,039. Other than the Sponsor’s fee of $72,112,039, the Trust had no expenses during the period.”see in full comparison
The Trust’s net asset value decreased fromsee in full comparison$67,401,155,244 at December 31, 2025 to$53,384,746,718 at March 31, 2026 to $43,386,012,125 at June 30, 2026, a20.80%18.73% decrease. The decrease in the Trust’s net asset value resulted primarily from a decrease in the price of bitcoin, which fell22.10%13.25% from$87,463.03 at December 31, 2025 to$68,129.64 at March 31, 2026 to $59,101.49 at June 30, 2026. The decrease in the Trust’s net asset value waspartiallyalsooffsetaffected byanaincreasedecrease in the number of outstanding Shares, whichrosefell from1,358,680,000 Shares at December 31, 2025 to1,382,480,000 Shares at March 31, 2026 to 1,296,040,000 Shares at June 30, 2026, a consequence of176,920,000100,920,000 Shares (4,4232,523 Baskets) being created and153,120,000187,360,000 Shares (3,8284,684 Baskets) being redeemed during the quarter.
The net decrease in net assets resulting from operations for the quarter endedsee in full comparisonMarchJune31,30, 2026 was$15,128,427,303,$7,048,147,970, resulting from a net realized loss of$5,559,506$6,912,826 from bitcoin sold to pay expenses, a net realized loss of$480,372,715$824,710,538 from bitcoin sold for the redemption of Shares, a net realized loss of $771,263,116 from bitcoin paid for the in-kind redemptions of Shares, an unrealized loss on investment in bitcoin of$14,916,905,360$5,409,838,901 and a net investment loss of$36,689,450, partially offset by a net realized gain of $311,099,728 from bitcoin paid for the in-kind redemptions of Shares.$35,422,589. Other than the Sponsor’s fee of$36,689,450,$35,422,589, the Trust had no expenses during the quarter.
“The 32.51% decrease in the Financial Statement NAV from $49.61 at December 31, 2025 to $33.48 at June 30, 2026 is directly related to the 32.43% decrease in the price of bitcoin. The Financial Statement NAV decreased slightly more than the price of bitcoin on a percentage basis due to the Sponsor’s fee, which was $72,112,039 for the period, or 0.12% of the Trust’s average weighted assets of $58,168,395,213 during the period.”see in full comparison
Full comparison: every changed paragraph (13)
This information should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes to financial statements included in Item 1 of Part I of this Form 10‑Q. The discussion and analysis that follows may contain statements that relate to future events or future performance. In some cases, such forward‑lookingforward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “may,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially. These statements are based upon certain assumptions and analyses made by the Sponsor on the basis of its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Whether or not actual results and developments will conform to the Sponsor’s expectations and predictions, however, is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the special considerations discussed below, general economic, market and business conditions, changes in laws or regulations, including those concerning taxes, made by governmental authorities or regulatory bodies, and other world economic and political developments. Although the Sponsor does not make forward-looking statements unless it believes it has a reasonable basis for doing so, the Sponsor cannot guarantee their accuracy. Except as required by applicable disclosure laws, neither the Trust nor the Sponsor is under a duty to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform such statements to actual results or to a change in the Sponsor’s expectations or predictions.
The CF Benchmarks Index is calculated as of 4:00 p.m. ET. The CF Benchmarks Index is designed based on the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks and is a Registered Benchmark under the UK Benchmark Regulations (“BMR”). The administrator of the CF Benchmarks Index is CF Benchmarks Ltd. (the “Index Administrator”) a UK incorporated company, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK as a Benchmark Administrator, under the UK BMR.
The financial statements and accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. The preparation of these financial statements relies on estimates and assumptions that impact the Trust’s financial position and results of operations. These estimates and assumptions affect the Trust’s application of accounting policies. A description of the valuation of bitcoin, a critical accounting policy that the Trust believes is important to understanding its results of operations and financial position, is provided in the section entitled “Valuation of Bitcoin; The CF BenchmarkBenchmarks Index,” above. In addition, please refer to Note 2 to the financial statements included in this report for further discussion of the Trust’s accounting policies.
The Quarter Ended MarchJune 31,30, 2026
The Trust’s net asset value decreased from $67,401,155,244 at December 31, 2025 to $53,384,746,718 at March 31, 2026 to $43,386,012,125 at June 30, 2026, a 20.80%18.73% decrease. The decrease in the Trust’s net asset value resulted primarily from a decrease in the price of bitcoin, which fell 22.10%13.25% from $87,463.03 at December 31, 2025 to $68,129.64 at March 31, 2026 to $59,101.49 at June 30, 2026. The decrease in the Trust’s net asset value was partiallyalso offsetaffected by ana increasedecrease in the number of outstanding Shares, which rosefell from 1,358,680,000 Shares at December 31, 2025 to 1,382,480,000 Shares at March 31, 2026 to 1,296,040,000 Shares at June 30, 2026, a consequence of 176,920,000100,920,000 Shares (4,4232,523 Baskets) being created and 153,120,000187,360,000 Shares (3,8284,684 Baskets) being redeemed during the quarter.
The 22.15%13.31% decrease in the NAV for purposes of the Trust’s periodic financial statements (“Financial Statement NAV”) from $49.61 at December 31, 2025 to $38.62 at March 31, 2026 to $33.48 at June 30, 2026 is directly related to the 22.10%13.25% decrease in the price of bitcoin. The Financial Statement NAV decreased slightly more than the price of bitcoin on a percentage basis due to the Sponsor’s Fee,fee, which was $36,689,450$35,422,589 for the quarter, or 0.06% of the Trust’s average weighted assets of $59,535,040,296$56,816,768,207 during the quarter.
The NAV of $55.32$46.42 on JanuaryMay 14,11, 2026 was the highest during the quarter, compared with a low during the quarter of $36.23$33.48 on FebruaryJune 5,30, 2026.
The net decrease in net assets resulting from operations for the quarter ended MarchJune 31,30, 2026 was $15,128,427,303,$7,048,147,970, resulting from a net realized loss of $5,559,506$6,912,826 from bitcoin sold to pay expenses, a net realized loss of $480,372,715$824,710,538 from bitcoin sold for the redemption of Shares, a net realized loss of $771,263,116 from bitcoin paid for the in-kind redemptions of Shares, an unrealized loss on investment in bitcoin of $14,916,905,360$5,409,838,901 and a net investment loss of $36,689,450, partially offset by a net realized gain of $311,099,728 from bitcoin paid for the in-kind redemptions of Shares.$35,422,589. Other than the Sponsor’s fee of $36,689,450,$35,422,589, the Trust had no expenses during the quarter.
The Six-Month Period Ended June 30, 2026
The Trust’s net asset value decreased from $67,401,155,244 at December 31, 2025 to $43,386,012,125 at June 30, 2026, a 35.63% decrease. The decrease in the Trust’s net asset value resulted primarily from a decrease in the price of bitcoin, which fell 32.43% from $87,463.03 at December 31, 2025 to $59,101.49 at June 30, 2026. The decrease in the Trust’s net asset value was also affected by a decrease in the number of outstanding Shares, which fell from 1,358,680,000 Shares at December 31, 2025 to 1,296,040,000 Shares at June 30, 2026, a consequence of 277,840,000 Shares (6,946 Baskets) being created and 340,480,000 Shares (8,512 Baskets) being redeemed during the period.
The 32.51% decrease in the Financial Statement NAV from $49.61 at December 31, 2025 to $33.48 at June 30, 2026 is directly related to the 32.43% decrease in the price of bitcoin. The Financial Statement NAV decreased slightly more than the price of bitcoin on a percentage basis due to the Sponsor’s fee, which was $72,112,039 for the period, or 0.12% of the Trust’s average weighted assets of $58,168,395,213 during the period.
The NAV of $55.32 on January 14, 2026 was the highest during the period, compared with a low during the period of $33.48 on June 30, 2026.
The net decrease in net assets resulting from operations for the six months ended June 30, 2026 was $22,176,575,273, resulting from a net realized loss of $12,472,332 from bitcoin sold to pay expenses, a net realized loss of $1,305,083,253 from bitcoin sold for the redemption of Shares, a net realized loss of $460,163,388 from bitcoin paid for the in-kind redemptions of Shares, an unrealized loss on investment in bitcoin of $20,326,744,261 and a net investment loss of $72,112,039. Other than the Sponsor’s fee of $72,112,039, the Trust had no expenses during the period.
IBIT insider buying and selling (Form 4)
Since 2026-04-11, insiders reported open-market purchases in 0 Form 4 filings and open-market sales in 0 filings. Totals add up every open-market (code P and S) line in those filings, using the prices reported in the filings. Awards, option exercises, tax withholding and gifts are listed below but not counted.
No Form 4 stock transactions in this period.
Well-known investors holding IBIT (13F)
| Investor | Quarter | Shares | Reported value | % of their 13F | Change vs prior quarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millennium Management (Israel Englander) | 2026-06-30 | 9,686,854 | $322.5M | 0.22% | Reduced 50% |
| D. E. Shaw & Co. | 2026-06-30 | 6,260,451 | $240.5M | — | Sold out |
| Renaissance Technologies | 2026-06-30 | 1,403,942 | $46.7M | 0.06% | Added 313% |
| Citadel Advisors (Ken Griffin) | 2026-06-30 | 514,614 | $17.1M | 0.01% | Reduced 60% |
| Coatue Management (Philippe Laffont) | 2026-06-30 | 67,226 | $2.6M | — | Sold out |
| Point72 Asset Management (Steve Cohen) | 2026-06-30 | 47,000 | $1.8M | — | Sold out |
| Gotham Asset Management (Joel Greenblatt) | 2026-06-30 | 8,390 | $279.3K | 0.0% | Reduced 43% |