In January 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved the first batch of spot Bitcoin (BTC 0.40%) exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Unlike the earlier Bitcoin ETFs, which mainly tracked Bitcoin futures, these ETFs were directly backed by Bitcoin reserves and pegged to the cryptocurrency's market price. Retail and institutional investors could easily buy those ETFs to gain exposure to Bitcoin without using crypto wallets.
The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT 0.30%), which holds $52.6 billion in assets, is now the top spot Bitcoin ETF. But how many of its shares would be equivalent to a single Bitcoin?
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A single Bitcoin is worth more than 1,700 shares of IBIT
Each share of IBIT represents a claim on approximately 0.000568 Bitcoin held in the fund's custody. That ratio isn't fixed; it fluctuates daily based on the fund's holdings and deducted fees. It currently charges an expense ratio of 0.25%, which is comparable to most of its peers.
NASDAQ: IBIT
Key Data Points
So to buy a stake in a single Bitcoin in IBIT's custody, you'd need to buy 1,761 shares for just over $65,000. That's roughly the same price as a single Bitcoin on a crypto exchange, so there's not much of a difference between investing in IBIT or directly buying the token.
