MutualFundWire.com: Bitwise Preps Its 1st Income ETFs

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Thursday, March 20, 2025

Bitwise Preps Its 1st Income ETFs

Matt Hougan are preparing to enter the income side of the ETF space with a trio of funds that focus on options and individual stocks related to the digital assets space.

Matthew "Matt" Hougan
Bitwise Asset Management
Chief Investment Officer Officer

Today, the Bitwise [profile] team filed to launch three single-stock option-income funds: the Bitwise COIN Option Income Strategy ETF (ICOI on the NYSE Arca), the Bitwise MARA Option Income Strategy ETF (IMRA), and the Bitwise MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF (IMST). San Francisco-based Bitwise Investment Management, LLC (BIM) will serve as investment advisor to each of the funds.

The filing is scheduled to take effect this coming Monday (March 24), so the three new ETFs could debut as soon as that. They each will come with the same expense ratio, 98 basis points, which bakes in a 1bps fee waiver promised through March 25, 2027.

IMST, IMRA, and ICOI will all use the same PM quartet: Gayatri Choudhury, quantitative investment analyst at BIM; Daniella Padilla, portfolio manager; Jeff Park, head of alpha strategy; and Jennifer Thornton, senior index fund PM.

Each fund is designed to provide exposure to a specific individual stock, combined with income generation from an options strategy. ICOI will provide exposure to Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN). IMRA will provide exposure to MARA Holdings, Inc. (MARA), and IMST will provide exposure to MicroStrategy Incorporated (MSTR).

All three of the companies the planned ETFs will focus on are already drawing single-stock-fund attention from other firms. Since last spring, at least two other firms have filed to create option-income funds focused on COIN. At least one firm recently launched a leveraged fund focused on MARA. At least one other firm recently filed to create an option-income fund focused on MSTR. And since last summer at least two firms have filed to create leveraged funds focused on MSTR.

IMST, IMRA, and ICOI will each be actively managed, non-diversified series of the Bitwise Funds Trust. Their other service providers will include: the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) as administrator, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, and transfer agent; Chapman and Cutler LLP as counsel; ACA's Foreside Fund Services, LLC as distributor; and KPMG LLP as independent accounting firm.

Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=69672

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