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Guides: understand it before you buy it
Longer explainers for the parts of this market that genuinely repay a careful read — the structure you are buying into, what it costs over time, how it is taxed, and how to place the order without giving money away.
Start with the structure
Foundations
Spot Bitcoin ETFs are grantor trusts registered under the Securities Act of 1933 — not registered investment companies under the 1940 Act, which is the law behind almost every other ETF you have owned. That single fact changes which protections apply to you, and it is where these guides begin.
What is a Bitcoin ETF?
The definition, the grantor-trust structure, and what you own that is not bitcoin.
8 min readHow Bitcoin ETFs work
Creation and redemption, authorised participants, custody, and why the price tracks.
9 min readETF investing for beginners
How exchange-traded funds work at all, if you are starting from zero.
10 min readThen the mechanics
Actually placing the trade
The gap between deciding to invest and having the position is where avoidable money gets lost — a market order at the open, the wrong account type, a broker that does not carry the fund you chose.
Order types and limit orders
Market, limit, stop and stop-limit — and the one you should default to.
7 min readHow to buy a Bitcoin ETF
Account to order ticket, with the settings people get wrong.
8 min readBrokers compared
Commissions, IRA access and an honest read on each platform's interface.
11 min readAnd the consequences
Tax, rules and risk
These three guides cover the material that is least fun to read and most expensive to get wrong. The tax guide corrects a claim you will see repeated across the internet — that spot Bitcoin ETFs face a 28% collectibles rate. They do not, and the statutory reason is straightforward once someone sets it out.
The regulation guide traces how these funds were approved, with the actual SEC release numbers so you can read the primary documents yourself. The risk guide is written without hedging: these funds hold one extremely volatile asset, the wrapper does nothing about that, and one fund in the category has already closed.
Tax treatment
Wash sales, the collectibles myth, and the fee quirk that catches people out.
10 min readRegulation and SEC approvals
From the Grayscale ruling to generic listing standards, with the release numbers.
10 min readRisks to understand
Concentration, custody, closures and drawdowns, stated without hedging.
9 min read
Do the reading Reference pages
Data, not explanation
When you want the numbers rather than the argument, these are the directory pages.
Bitcoin ETF list
All 12 US spot funds with tickers, fees, assets and custodians.
Crypto ETF list
Every US crypto fund by asset and by structure.
Fees compared
Sponsor fee, spread and tracking difference, with the arithmetic.
Global listings
Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Australia, Brazil — and the PFIC trap.
Questions about these guides
Which guide should I read first?
Do I need to understand creation and redemption to invest?
Are these guides updated?
Is any of this financial advice?
Read enough? The other route is simpler than it looks
If what you actually want is bitcoin you can hold, send and withdraw rather than a share that references its price, an exchange account takes a few minutes to open.
A regulated venue trading since 2013, registered with FinCEN as a money services business.