The U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs Compared: Who Holds What, What It Costs, and How to Read the Table
Skip to calculator ↓Eleven spot bitcoin ETFs began trading on January 11, 2024, the day after the SEC approved them. Less than three years later the field has consolidated around a handful of large funds, and the differences between them are small enough that most investors pick on fee and liquidity. This page puts the seven spot funds we track side by side (plus Strategy, the corporate holder, for scale) — market price, NAV, premium or discount, expense ratio, bitcoin held, and bitcoin per share — using numbers reported by each issuer, not estimated by a third party.
Scale: one fund dominates
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) held about 805,000 BTC in our October 15, 2026 snapshot, more than the other six funds combined. Fidelity's FBTC held roughly 178,000, Grayscale's GBTC about 126,000, and the Grayscale Mini Trust (BTC) about 63,000. Bitwise (BITB), ARK 21Shares (ARKB), and VanEck (HODL) each hold between roughly 15,000 and 37,000. For context, the table also lists Strategy (MSTR), the corporate treasury holder, at about 848,000 BTC — not an ETF, and included only because it is the one public company whose bitcoin position rivals the funds.
Scale matters for two practical reasons. Larger funds trade with tighter spreads and have listed options; smaller funds are more likely to show a transient premium or discount when creations lag demand. Neither affects what you own per share, which is the point of the next column.
Bitcoin per share, and why it differs
Each fund launched at a different initial ratio — most near 0.00057 BTC per share, GBTC closer to 0.0009, the Mini Trust lower — so the raw bitcoin-per-share figure is not a quality score. What is comparable is its rate of decline, which should equal the fee. In SEC quarterly filings, IBIT's ratio fell about 0.21% a year, FBTC's about 0.26%, and GBTC's about 1.49% — matching their 0.25%, 0.25%, and 1.50% fees. Our staking page uses these three funds as a control group precisely because they behave as the fee predicts.
Reading premium and discount
NAV in this table is computed live: bitcoin per share × spot price. The market price is the last trade. When the market price exceeds NAV the fund is at a premium; below, at a discount. Spot bitcoin ETFs arbitrage tightly — a few basis points either way is normal — but the gap widens during U.S. market closures because bitcoin keeps trading while the ETF does not. A premium at 9:31 a.m. after an overnight rally is noise, not a mispricing.
Fees and the GBTC question
Expense ratios range from 0.15% (Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust) to 1.50% (GBTC). GBTC's fee is a legacy of its decade as an over-the-counter trust; holders with large embedded gains in taxable accounts often stay because selling would trigger tax, which is why Grayscale spun off the cheaper Mini Trust in July 2024 with a tax-free share distribution. The fee drag calculator shows what each rate costs over ten and twenty years.
Where the numbers come from
Holdings and shares outstanding are copied from each issuer's fund page weekly and cross-checked quarterly against the trust's 10-Q or 10-K on SEC EDGAR. The full history, with filing links, is on each fund's page under /etf/ and downloadable from the data page.
For informational purposes only — not financial, tax, or legal advice. Figures cited are from the sources linked above as of the date noted; verify current values at the source before acting.