Two
days
before
the
Securities
and
Exchanges
Commission
(SEC)
is
expected
to
approve
one
or
more
U.S.
spot
bitcoin
exchange-traded
funds
(ETFs),
all
potential
issuers
have
disclosed
an
important
–
if
not
the
most
important
–
detail
about
their
product:
the
fee.
And
they
differ
greatly.
Some
13
proposed
ETFs
are
awaiting
SEC
approval,
or
rejection,
and
the
fee
they
charge
is
one
way
they
can
differentiate
themselves
from
the
others.
Lower
fees,
charged
as
a
percentage
of
the
fund’s
assets,
leave
more
for
investors.
Crypto
native
fund
manager
Bitwise
is
charging
the
least
–
0.24%
after
a
6-month
period
of
no
fees
–
though
some
of
its
rivals
aren’t
far
off.
Ark
and
21Shares
plan
to
charge
0.25%,
VanEck
also
lists
at
0.25%
and
Franklin
at
0.29%.
BlackRock,
the
world’s
largest
asset
manager,
set
its
fee
at
0.30%,
lower
than
some
experts
had
expected
given
its
size
and
reputation
could
have
allowed
it
to
charge
more
and
still
strongly
compete
in
popularity.
“Life
just
got
a
lot
tougher
for
everyone
else,”
Bloomberg
Intelligence’s
ETF
senior
analyst
Eric
Balchunas
wrote
on
X,
referring
to
BlackRock’s
pricing
decision.
Fidelity
set
its
fee
at
0.39%
and
Invesco
and
Galaxy
at
0.59%,
while
Valkyrie
and
Hashdex
chose
0.80%
and
0.90%,
respectively.
Like
Bitwise,
most
of
the
issuers
plan
to
offer
reduced
fees
for
a
fixed
period
after
their
introduction.
One
stand
out
is
Grayscale,
which
wants
to
convert
its
Grayscale
Bitcoin
Trust
(GBTC)
into
an
ETF.
It
plans
to
charge
at
the
high
end
of
range,
1.5%.
While
this
is
lower
than
the
trust’s
management
fee
of
2%
and
there
is
a
potential
to
waive
the
fee,
it
might
not
be
enough
to
compete
with
the
other
applicants,
according
to
some
observers.
“Hard
to
imagine
advisors
picking
a
1.5%
ETF”
Balchunas
said
on
X.
Grayscale’s
fee,
“simply
isn’t
going
to
cut
it,”
posted
Nate
Geraci,
another
ETF
expert.
For
context,
the
average
fee
on
ETFs
in
2022
was
0.37%
according
to
research
from
Morningstar.
Grayscale,
however,
has
heft
in
another
category
that
matters
greatly
in
the
ETF
world:
size.
It
already
has
more
than
$27
billion
of
assets
under
management,
which
gives
it
a
huge
advantage
compared
to
the
others,
which
have
zero.
