Bitwise Asset Management has launched a spot Avalanche exchange-traded product that gives investors direct exposure to AVAX while staking a portion of holdings to earn yield. The fund, trading on the NYSE under the ticker BAVA, began trading Wednesday and closed up about 1.5% at $25.50 per share. AVAX was trading near $9.52, up about 1.8%.
Bitwise intends to stake roughly 70% of the fund’s AVAX through its in-house staking arm, Bitwise Onchain Solutions, and keep a liquidity reserve of about 30% to meet redemptions and operational needs. Staking rewards on Avalanche were around 5.4% as of mid-April. The fund holds AVAX directly and will distribute net investment income, including staking rewards, to shareholders periodically.
The product carries a sponsor fee of 0.34%, with a temporary waiver to 0% for the first month on the first $500 million in assets. Bitwise’s staking unit will participate in network validation and receive rewards paid in additional tokens.
Avalanche is a Layer-1 blockchain designed for high throughput and low latency and is used in tokenization and enterprise pilots, including projects tied to FIFA, state stablecoin initiatives in Wyoming, and work with companies such as Toyota and asset managers including BlackRock. The Bitwise launch follows recent activity around Avalanche funds: Nasdaq last week filed to list shares of the proposed VanEck Avalanche Trust under rules for commodity-based trust shares. CME Group has also expanded crypto futures to include Avalanche and Sui contracts.
Separately, exchange-traded crypto products and public companies continue to amass a growing share of Bitcoin’s circulating supply. Data from BitBO.io shows U.S. Bitcoin ETFs hold more than 1.29 million BTC, just over 6% of supply, while public companies hold about 1.17 million BTC on their balance sheets. Combined, ETFs and corporate holders account for roughly 12% of circulating Bitcoin.
Among ETFs, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust leads with about 791,000 BTC (around 3.8% of supply), followed by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust at roughly 153,600 BTC. Banks are also entering the market: Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust recorded $30.6 million in inflows on its trading debut and about $34 million in first-day volume. Goldman Sachs has filed to launch a Bitcoin-linked ETF designed to generate income by investing in Bitcoin ETPs and selling call options.
On corporate treasuries, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) holds about 780,897 BTC, roughly 4% of supply. Governments collectively hold about 649,870 BTC (around 3% of supply), with the United States holding roughly 328,000 BTC, China about 190,000 BTC, and the United Kingdom over 61,000 BTC.
Bitcoin’s price has fallen from an October high near $126,000 and was trading around $75,100 per CoinGecko data. Cointelegraph states this article follows its Editorial Policy and encourages readers to verify information independently.