Crypto ETFs on the ASX: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Everything In Between

These products let you access Bitcoin and Ethereum through your regular brokerage account — Commonwealth Securities, Selfwealth, Stake, or any CHESS-sponsored broker. No crypto exchange account. No digital wallet. No seed phrases. No risk of locking yourself out of your own assets forever.

But crypto ETFs come at a cost. Their management expense ratios (MERs) range from 0.25% to 0.69% per year — for something you could buy directly on a crypto exchange and hold for free. Whether that trade-off makes sense depends entirely on your situation.

The Complete List

Bitcoin ETFs — 6 Funds, $580M AUM

All six track the same thing: the spot price of Bitcoin in Australian dollars. The only meaningful differences are fees, fund size, issuer, and custody arrangement.

IBTC is the cheapest at 0.25% — half a basis point cheaper than the mid-tier pack. VBTC and EBTC are the most established by AUM. IBIT (BlackRock) is the newest and arguably the most significant launch — BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager with $11.5 trillion in global AUM, and its ASX debut in November 2025 was the culmination of the same global Bitcoin ETF expansion that began with its record-breaking US IBIT launch in January 2024. QBTC from BetaShares launched in February 2025, rounding out what is now a crowded field.

Ethereum ETFs — 3 Funds, $65M AUM

The Ethereum ETF market is roughly one-ninth the size of the Bitcoin market in Australia. These three funds track the spot price of Ether in AUD.

IETH is cheapest at 0.25%, mirroring Monochrome's pricing on the Bitcoin side. EETH launched alongside EBTC in May 2022 and is the most established. Ethereum is the smart contract platform underpinning DeFi, NFTs, and the layer-2 scaling ecosystem — a fundamentally different proposition to Bitcoin, which functions primarily as a store of value and medium of exchange.

Crypto Equities and Blockchain — 2 Funds, $173M AUM

These two ETFs do not hold Bitcoin or Ethereum directly. They hold shares in companies operating across the crypto economy.

CRYP was the first crypto-linked product to list on the ASX, launching in November 2021 before Bitcoin spot ETFs were approved in Australia. Rather than holding BTC directly, it holds up to 50 crypto industry companies — currently led by BitMine Immersion Technologies, MicroStrategy, IREN, Coinbase, Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital, and others. The exposure is to the crypto economy, not the coin itself, which means CRYP can and does diverge significantly from Bitcoin's price movements.

FTEC is broader still — fintech and blockchain companies together — with more overlap with traditional financial technology.

The Issuers Behind Each ETF

Monochrome is notable for being the first issuer to hold Bitcoin directly under Australia's crypto asset licensing rules — a distinction it contested publicly with Global X, whose EBTC held Bitcoin via Coinbase rather than directly. Monochrome holds Bitcoin directly under an AFSL crypto-asset authorisation, making IBTC genuinely unique in its regulatory structure.

The Fee Question: Why Pay a MER When You Can Buy Crypto Directly?

This is the real question sitting beneath every crypto ETF discussion. You can buy Bitcoin on Swyftx, CoinSpot, or Kraken for a small one-off trading spread — and then hold it for free, indefinitely, with no annual management fee. Why pay 0.25% to 0.67% per year to own the same asset through an ETF?

The case for crypto ETFs:

• CHESS-sponsored. Your holding sits in your HIN alongside your other ETFs and shares. There is no separate account, no crypto exchange login, no counterparty risk beyond the ETF structure itself.

• SMSF eligible. This is the biggest driver of inflows. Many SMSF trustees either cannot or will not hold crypto directly on a custodial exchange, but can hold exchange-traded funds within their fund's existing investment strategy. The combination of Bitcoin exposure and SMSF eligibility is genuinely novel.

• No wallet management. No seed phrase. No hardware wallet. No risk of forgetting a password and losing everything permanently.

• Clean tax reporting. AMMA statements, same as any other ETF. Capital gains events are clearly reported. No need to reconcile exchange transactions manually.

• Estate planning. ETFs pass through normal succession processes. Direct crypto holdings require explicit planning or assets can become inaccessible.

The case against:

The numbers are hard to ignore. On $100,000 invested:

• IBTC at 0.25% = $250/year in fees

• VBTC or EBTC at 0.45% = $450/year in fees

• CRYP at 0.67% = $670/year in fees

• Buying BTC directly and holding it on a reputable exchange = $0/year ongoing

Over 10 years on $100,000, the drag from a 0.45% MER compounds to roughly $4,500 in cumulative fees (ignoring the effect of growth or decline on the base). In a volatile asset class where returns range from +1,369% to -74% in any given year, the fee difference between ETFs is genuinely secondary. But compared to zero ongoing fees on an exchange, the question is legitimate.

The counter-argument from ETF proponents is that crypto exchanges now carry meaningful custodial and counterparty risk — as FTX demonstrated in 2022. However, Australian exchanges operating under ASIC oversight, combined with cold storage and segregated asset structures at the larger platforms, have substantially closed that risk gap. The honest answer is that the fee is the price of CHESS, SMSF eligibility, and simplicity — not necessarily of safety.

For a deeper look at how fees compound over time, see our analysis of ETF Fees and Performance and Every ASX ETF Ranked by Fees.

Bitcoin: The Long-Term Case (and the Brutal Drawdowns)

Bitcoin's annual return history is unlike any other asset class. These figures come from Bankrate's Bitcoin price history:

Over almost any multi-year window, Bitcoin has been the best-performing asset class on the planet — outperforming the Nasdaq 100, US large caps, gold, and Australian property by enormous margins. Bitcoin Magazine Pro calculates cumulative gains since 2011 in excess of 20,000,000%, and an annualised return of approximately 230% over the past decade — roughly 10 times the Nasdaq 100's performance over the same period.

But the drawdowns are savage, and they are the part most people underweight when they think about buying.

According to BlackRock/iShares data, since 2014 Bitcoin has experienced four drawdowns exceeding 50%. Three of those averaged approximately 80% declines and took nearly three years to fully recover. The four major drawdowns:

• 2011: approximately -93% from peak

• 2014–2015: approximately -85%

• 2018: approximately -84%

• 2022: approximately -77%

Patient investors who held through all of them were eventually rewarded. But "hold through a 77% crash" is easier to type than to live. At the 2022 bottom, a position worth $100,000 at the November 2021 peak had fallen to roughly $23,000. That took about two years to recover — longer than many investors' conviction lasted.

Each cycle, the drawdowns have become somewhat less severe as the asset matures and liquidity deepens. Whether that trend continues is genuinely uncertain.

Ethereum is even more volatile. According to Slickcharts' Ethereum annual returns data:

Ethereum launched its modern era in mid-2017 and the cycle that followed remains one of the most dramatic in financial history — a gain of over 9,000%, followed by an 82% loss. The 2020-2021 bull run produced back-to-back annual returns of +469% and +399%. The subsequent 2022 crash erased 68% of that value. As of early 2026, Ethereum is down 31% year-to-date, extending the pattern of outsized moves in both directions.

1-Year Performance: A Tough Year for Crypto ETF Holders

The past 12 months have been difficult for spot crypto ETF investors in Australia. Drawing on data from ReviewETF and Newhedge:

All Bitcoin spot ETFs returned approximately -26% over the past 12 months — with near-identical outcomes regardless of issuer, as expected given they all track the same underlying asset. The small differences reflect the marginal fee impact and timing of NAV calculations.

CRYP was the only positive performer at +11.9%, and this illustrates one of the underappreciated dynamics in crypto investing: crypto equities can decouple from spot crypto prices. Companies like Bitcoin miners, exchanges, and crypto infrastructure providers have their own revenue cycles, operational leverage, and equity market dynamics that don't map directly onto the price of BTC. Over 3 years, CRYP has returned +201% — the longest-standing and highest-returning crypto-linked product on the ASX.

The macro backdrop: Bitcoin peaked near US$100,000 in November 2024 before correcting through 2025 and into early 2026. As of April 2026, BTC trades around US$67,000 — roughly 33% off its all-time high. The AUD's depreciation against the USD partially offset losses for Australian holders of unhedged Bitcoin ETFs, but not enough to prevent the category from delivering deeply negative 1-year returns.

For 3-year performance, the longer-established funds show Bitcoin's underlying strength despite recent volatility: EBTC returned +167.4% over 3 years, CRYP returned +201.4%, and EETH returned +15.8%.

Where Crypto Fits in a Portfolio

The short version: it doesn't fit for everyone, and for those it does fit, the position should be small.

Recommended allocation: 0–5% maximum, for investors who understand the asset.

Crypto is a speculative satellite holding — not a core allocation. It should never replace VAS, VGS, or a diversified all-in-one like VDHG or DHHF. A 5% allocation to Bitcoin means that if BTC falls 80% — which it has done before — your total portfolio takes a 4% hit. Manageable. A 20% allocation under the same scenario means a 16% portfolio loss from a single speculative position.

If you want Bitcoin exposure through an ETF:
IBTC at 0.25% is the cheapest option on the market. IBIT at 0.39% is a close second and carries BlackRock's institutional credibility. Both track the same underlying asset — fee is the only meaningful differentiator.

If you want crypto equity exposure:
CRYP has the longest track record and the strongest 3-year return (+201%) of any crypto-linked ETF on the ASX. The 0.67% fee is high, but the equity structure provides differentiated exposure that can outperform (or underperform) spot crypto prices significantly.

If you're building a core portfolio first:
Read our Best ETFs for Beginners guide, or our piece on the 2-ETF portfolio vs core satellite approach. Crypto should come after a solid foundation — not before.

For thinking about when to hold vs trade, see Which ETFs Should You Hold Long-Term and Which Should You Trade. For SMSF-specific considerations, see Best ETFs for SMSF.

Key Takeaways

1. All Bitcoin ETFs track the same thing. Fee is the main differentiator. IBTC at 0.25% is the cheapest. IBIT at 0.39% brings BlackRock's institutional infrastructure.

2. Ethereum ETFs are much smaller. $65M combined vs $580M for Bitcoin. Lower liquidity and wider spreads — worth checking before trading.

3. CRYP has outperformed spot Bitcoin ETFs over 1 year. +11.9% vs -26% — because crypto equity companies can decouple from BTC price. Over 3 years it has returned +201%.

4. The fee question is real. You pay 0.25–0.67% p.a. for something you can hold for free on an exchange. The trade-off is CHESS, SMSF eligibility, and no wallet management.

5. The ETF advantages are genuine for the right investor. CHESS-sponsorship, SMSF eligibility, clean tax reporting, and no seed phrase risk are real benefits — particularly for SMSF trustees and investors who don't want to manage crypto infrastructure.

6. Bitcoin has been the best-performing asset class of any multi-year period in modern history — but drawdowns of 77–93% are historically normal. Each cycle the crashes have been somewhat less severe. Each time, patient holders were eventually rewarded. You need iron conviction to hold through an 80% crash.

7. Maximum 0–5% of portfolio. This is a speculative satellite. Not for beginners. Not for the faint-hearted. Not a replacement for a diversified core.

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Sources: Bankrate Bitcoin Price History · Slickcharts Ethereum Annual Returns · Bitcoin Magazine Pro Annual Returns · Monochrome IBTC Launch · BlackRock IBIT ASX Launch · BetaShares CRYP Fund Page · Gemini VanEck Custody Announcement · CBOE Australia · Newhedge ETF Data · ReviewETF.com.au