Who runs the crypto funds

The products in this market are more alike than the marketing suggests — same asset, often the same custodian, broadly the same structure. Where the issuers genuinely differ is in how they price, who they are pricing to, and in one case whether they participate at all.

The provider map

BlackRock

The largest asset manager in the world entered this category in January 2024 and has dominated it since. IBIT holds more assets than every other US spot bitcoin fund combined, at a 0.25% fee that is higher than several competitors.

There is no mystery in that. The iShares brand is on the approved list of essentially every wealth platform, adviser network and institutional allocator that was going to touch this asset class at all. For a compliance committee signing off a first allocation to something controversial, the name on the wrapper does work that a ten-basis-point fee saving does not.

On the ether side BlackRock has done something more interesting: it runs two separate funds, ETHA (non-staking, the original 2024 launch) and ETHB (launched 12 March 2026, stakes and pays monthly). Running both rather than converting one is a considered answer to a real liquidity trade-off, and we think it is the better approach.

In the UK, BlackRock listed the iShares Bitcoin ETP under IB1T on 20 October 2025, twelve days after the FCA change, at an introductory 0.15% that ran to 1 January 2026 before reverting to 0.25%.

Grayscale

The most instructive issuer in the market, because it runs two completely different pricing models at once and is explicit about it.

GBTC charges 1.50%. ETHE charges 2.50%. GSOL charges 2.50%. All three are converted trusts whose holders largely acquired at low cost bases and cannot leave without crystallising a capital gain. The pricing is aimed at a captive base.

Alongside them, Grayscale runs "mini" versions — the Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC) at 0.15% and the Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH) at 0.15% — offering the same exposure from the same sponsor with the same custodian, an order of magnitude cheaper. Those are for new money.

Grayscale is also the most prolific launcher in the category, with XRP and solana products and the multi-asset GDLC, which converted from the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund and began trading with around $865m.

Fidelity

Second-largest in US spot bitcoin with FBTC at roughly $10.3bn, and the one genuine structural differentiator in the whole category: Fidelity self-custodies through Fidelity Digital Assets rather than using Coinbase.

That matters more than the marketing tends to say. A large majority of the bitcoin behind US spot ETFs sits with Coinbase Custody. If you are concerned about that concentration — and it is a reasonable thing to be concerned about — FBTC is the main way to hold a large, liquid US bitcoin fund while actually changing your custodial exposure. Buying two other sponsors' funds does not.

Fidelity also lists a physical bitcoin ETP in London at 0.25%, confusingly under the same FBTC ticker. Check the exchange line.

Bitwise

A crypto-native asset manager rather than a traditional one, and the most aggressive price competitor in the market.

In the US it runs BITB at 0.20%, ETHW at 0.20% — the smallest sponsor fee among the original 2024 ether cohort — the BITW index product at 0.75%, and BSOL, the solana staking fund that launched on 28 October 2025 and closed its first day with $217.2m.

In the UK it went further. Bitwise Europe cut its Core Bitcoin ETP from 0.20% to 0.05% and stated the reduced rate as continuing until further notice, and reportedly suspended the fee on its flagship ether product. At 0.05% it is the smallest annual product fee on a listed bitcoin product that we have been able to verify anywhere.

21Shares, WisdomTree and CoinShares

These three matter disproportionately to a UK investor, because their European ETP franchises predate the US fund market and they were positioned when the FCA opened the door.

21Shares prices its Core Bitcoin (CBTC) and Core Ethereum Staking (ETHC) lines at 0.10%, alongside staking variants ABTC and AETH. It also partners with ARK on the US ARKB fund.

WisdomTree runs physically backed bitcoin at 0.15% and ether at 0.35% in London, plus a US bitcoin fund at 0.25%.

CoinShares did the most unusual thing in the market: it set the management fee on its physical staked ether note to zero and funds the product from the staking payout instead. It is not free — you are receiving less of the protocol payout than you would staking yourself — but it is a genuinely different commercial model. Note that some legacy CoinShares lines carry fees above 1%, so the issuer name alone tells you nothing about the price.

ARK, VanEck, Invesco and Franklin

ARK Invest runs ARKB in partnership with 21Shares at 0.21% and roughly $2.1bn. Cathie Wood's firm was among the earliest and most vocal institutional advocates for this asset class, which is a positioning fact rather than an investment one.

VanEck runs HODL at 0.20% and is one of the few US sponsors not using Coinbase — it uses Gemini. It also runs the solana fund VSOL, with a 1.50% headline fee waived on the first $1bn, and in Europe the Crypto and Blockchain Innovators UCITS ETF (DAPP), which is a genuine equity ETF at 0.65% with roughly $582m under management at the end of August 2026.

Invesco operates through a partnership with Galaxy Digital on BTCO and QETH, and lists a physical bitcoin ETP in the UK under BTIC which ran a 0.10% discounted rate to the end of 2025.

Franklin Templeton has been consistently at the cheap end of the US range — EZBC at 0.19%, EZET at 0.19% — without ever attracting proportionate assets. It is the clearest demonstration in the market that price alone does not win flows.

Vanguard: the notable absence

Vanguard has no crypto fund, no crypto note, and has historically declined to offer third-party crypto products through its own brokerage platform. Given how much search traffic the question generates, it is worth stating plainly rather than leaving people to infer it.

The firm's position follows from its investment philosophy. Vanguard's house view centres on assets with an expected long-term return derived from cash flows or productive economic activity — equities produce earnings, bonds produce interest. Cryptoassets produce neither in that sense, and Vanguard has not treated them as belonging in a long-term portfolio.

Our read: this is a coherent position held consistently, and it is neither a warning nor an endorsement of anything. It does mean that if you are a Vanguard customer and you want this exposure, you need an account somewhere else — which is a practical consideration worth knowing before you plan around it.

Three pricing patterns worth recognising

The captive-base premium. GBTC at 1.50%, ETHE at 2.50%, GSOL at 2.50%. Converted trusts pricing to holders who face a tax bill if they leave. Almost always has a cheaper sibling aimed at new money.

The distribution premium. IBIT at 0.25% when Franklin offers 0.19% and the Grayscale Mini offers 0.15%. You are paying for the deepest order book and the brand that got the product onto every platform. Worth it if you deal often; not if you do not.

The land-grab discount. Bitwise at 0.05% in the UK, 21Shares at 0.10%, waivers on the first $1bn of a new altcoin fund. Genuine value for a buyer today, with the caveat that several of these are stated as introductory or "until further notice". Recheck annually.