Bitwise Shuts Down Six Crypto Option ETFs

Bitwise Asset Management has officially wrapped up trading for six option income exchange traded funds. July 31 was the final trading day for these products. Shareholders who still held shares as of August 3 will receive an automatic cash redemption instead of selling on the open market. The board voted to liquidate these funds at the end of June following a prospectus supplement filed with the SEC.

The affected funds used option income strategies tied to major crypto names and related stocks like Coinbase, Marathon Digital, Strategy, GameStop, Circle, and Ethereum. While these products offered high annualized distribution rates reaching up to 25% earlier this year, filings showed that many of these payouts were simply returns of the investors own capital rather than new earnings. At the same time, the funds posted negative returns since their inception, ranging from roughly minus fourteen percent to over minus fifty percent.

Combined assets under management for these six funds sat around twenty three million dollars before the liquidation process began. Final net asset values will be calculated on August 7, and investors should expect to receive their cash proceeds through their brokers around August 10. Traders should keep an eye on how traditional finance managers handle crypto yield products moving forward, as these high payout strategies face increasing pressure.