Hashdex to Shut Down Bitcoin ETF After Struggling to Gain Assets

Hashdex is shutting down its U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund after it amassed just $14.7 million in assets under management.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, the crypto asset manager’s Hashdex Bitcoin ETF (NYSE Arca: DEFI) will stop trading after the market closes on Aug. 17 before being delisted. Shareholders who still own the fund at that point are expected to receive cash distributions on or about Aug. 28 after the fund sells its remaining Bitcoin holdings.

“Following the Last Trading Day, the Fund will liquidate its remaining Bitcoin holdings,” the filing said. “The Fund will no longer pursue its stated investment objective and will not engage in any business activities other than winding up its business and affairs, preserving the value of its assets, paying its liabilities, and distributing its remaining assets to shareholders.”

Hashdex said it evaluated factors including assets under management, trading liquidity, operating costs, investor interest, and how the fund fit within its broader product lineup before deciding to liquidate. The firm said it continues to manage more than $200 million across investment products available to U.S. investors.

An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, lets investors gain exposure to an asset, in this case Bitcoin, by buying shares that trade on a stock exchange. Because the price of the ETF is correlated to the price of Bitcoin, the final payout could differ from the fund’s current value because the price may change while the assets are being sold.

The closure comes more than two years after Hashdex entered the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market, following the SEC’s landmark approval of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024.

In March 2024, the firm converted its Bitcoin futures ETF, which had traded under the DEFI ticker since September 2022, into a spot Bitcoin ETF in August 2023, holding roughly 5,500 Bitcoin.

The company later sought to expand its U.S. offerings with a combined Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, but the SEC delayed a decision on the proposal in August 2024.