The free ride for VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF is officially over after falling $1.4 billion short of growth target

VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF, trading as HODL, ends its zero-sponsor-fee period on July 31, with the 0.20% sponsor fee applying to all trust assets from Aug. 1. The fund reported $1.076 billion in net assets as of July 30, equal to 43.0% of the waiver’s $2.5 billion asset threshold and $1.424 billion below it. VanEck waived the fee on the first $2.5 billion of trust assets through July 31. Had assets exceeded that level before the deadline, only assets above $2.5 billion would have incurred the fee. At the July 30 asset level, a 0.20% annual fee would generate approximately $2.15 million in sponsor fees if assets remained unchanged. For investors, the rate equals $20 annually for every $10,000 invested, before changes in share price. It is not a measure of total ownership cost; commissions, bid-ask spreads, premiums or discounts to net asset value, taxes and other expenses can also affect returns. VanEck filed the latest extension on Nov. 25, 2025, replacing an earlier Jan. 10, 2026 deadline with July 31. No further extension had been announced by Friday morning, and the SEC submissions feed contained no newer fee-waiver filing. Farside Investors recorded $87.6 million of net outflows across 169 dated sessions from Nov. 25 through July 30. That figure does not measure changes in assets under management and cannot, by itself, establish investor rejection or predict post-waiver behavior. Net assets also reflect Bitcoin’s value, creations, redemptions and expenses. On July 30, HODL attracted $2.3 million, or 0.99% of the $233.1 million inflow across tracked U.S. spot-Bitcoin products. Its cumulative net inflows totaled $1.146 billion, a separate measure from net assets. The new fee matches the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF’s 0.20%, remains below the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF’s 0.25% and is one basis point above the Franklin Bitcoin ETF’s 0.19%. Bitcoin was down 0.26% over 24 hours, with a $1.55 trillion market capitalization, $28.15 billion in volume and 20.07 million circulating coins.