VanEck is a long-tenured US ETF issuer founded in 1955, with $113B in firm-wide AUM. The firm entered the crypto ETF market in January 2024 with HODL, its spot Bitcoin Trust, after years of advocacy for regulated digital asset products with the SEC.
HODL trades on Cboe BZX with a 0.20% expense ratio. VanEck pledged to donate 5% of HODL profits to Bitcoin Core developers, signalling crypto-native alignment despite the firm's traditional finance roots. HODL holds spot Bitcoin at Gemini Trust as custodian.
Compared to the BlackRock and Fidelity giants, VanEck operates at materially smaller scale in spot Bitcoin ETFs but offers a competitive fee and a differentiated custodian (Gemini). Investors who specifically want Gemini custody or who value VanEck's traditional ETF heritage choose HODL over peers.
HODL is the VanEck Bitcoin Trust, a US spot Bitcoin ETF that launched in January 2024. It trades on Cboe BZX and holds spot BTC at Gemini Trust as custodian.
HODL's expense ratio is 0.20%, competitive with the lowest-fee spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US market.
Spot Bitcoin held by HODL is custodied at Gemini Trust Company. Most other major US spot Bitcoin ETFs use Coinbase Custody, so HODL is a useful diversifier on custodian risk.
Yes. VanEck has pledged to donate 5% of HODL profits to support Bitcoin Core open-source development.
HODL has a slightly lower expense ratio (0.20% vs 0.25%) but materially smaller AUM and lower daily volume. The custodian (Gemini vs Coinbase or Fidelity Digital Assets) is the other meaningful structural difference.