An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a fund listed on a stock exchange, so you can buy and sell shares in it just like ordinary shares. The fund holds a basket of assets, such as shares, bonds or gold, and the price of its shares follows their value. ETFs are a popular way to achieve DiversificationDiversificationSpreading your money across different assets so that a fall in one of them has less effect on the whole., because one fund can hold shares in hundreds of companies.
Bitcoin ETFs
On 10 January 2024, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first exchange-traded funds that hold BitcoinBitcoinThe first and largest cryptocurrency: a digital currency that no single party controls, with a fixed limit of 21 million coins. directly. These funds buy bitcoin and keep it with a CustodianCustodianA company that holds crypto and the keys to it on behalf of customers, such as a licensed crypto exchange., and investors own shares in the fund. Funds holding other coins, such as ether, followed later.
In Europe, similar products are usually sold as ETPs or ETNs (exchange-traded products or notes) rather than ETFs, because of EU rules on investment funds. The idea is much the same: you get the price movement of the coin through a security.
How is an ETF different from owning crypto?
With an ETF you own a share in a fund, not the crypto itself. You buy it through a stockbroker and can't send bitcoin from the fund to your own crypto walletCrypto walletAn app or device that holds the keys to your crypto and lets you receive, store and send it.. The fund charges an annual management fee, and you can only trade while the stock exchange is open.
If you buy crypto directly, you own it and can send it anywhere, at any time of day. The price swings are the same either way. An ETF doesn't protect you from a fall in the coin's price.
Everything in Myntkaup Learn is written and regularly reviewed by the Myntkaup editorial team. It is for education and is not investment advice. Editorial policy. Updated 18 October 2026.