Remember when the first spot Bitcoin ETFs finally hit the market in early 2024? It felt like the moment crypto grew up overnight. Billions poured in within days, retirement accounts could finally touch BTC without jumping through hoops, and suddenly your uncle who still uses a flip phone was asking about “that Bitcoin fund thing.” Fast forward to today, December 2025, and something even bigger might have just quietly happened.
Bitwise just converted its long-running crypto index fund into a full-blown exchange-traded fund – ticker BITW – that holds the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap in one basket. We’re talking Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, and then – for the first time in any major manager’s ETF – Cardano, Avalanche, Sui, and Polkadot all sitting alongside veterans like Chainlink and Litecoin.
Yeah, I had to read that twice too.
Finally, a Real Crypto Index for Regular Investors
Think about traditional markets for a second. When someone wants broad exposure to U.S. stocks, they don’t hand-pick 500 companies. They buy the S&P 500 and call it a day. Want small caps? There’s an ETF. Europe? Got you. Emerging markets? Literally hundreds of choices.
Crypto never had that. Until now.
The new Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF isn’t trying to be everything to everyone – it’s deliberately focused on the ten largest assets that pass their strict institutional-grade criteria. But in doing so, it becomes something we’ve desperately needed: a single-ticker solution that actually feels like a core portfolio holding rather than a speculative side bet.
What’s Actually Inside BITW?
Here’s the current lineup (weights shift monthly based on market cap):
- Bitcoin – the undisputed king
- Ether – still the smart contract platform everyone builds on
- XRP – yes, really, after years of regulatory drama
- Solana – speed demon that’s eating Ethereum’s lunch in some sectors
- Chainlink – the oracle network that quietly makes DeFi possible
- Litecoin – old school but still hanging in the top ranks
- Cardano – research-heavy contender that’s finally shipping features
- Avalanche – the “internet of blockchains” play
- Sui – newer high-performance layer-1 making serious noise
- Polkadot – the multi-chain vision that refuses to die
The really interesting part? About 90% of the fund stays in assets that already have their own single-coin ETFs available – Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and XRP. That keeps the risk profile somewhat familiar to advisors who’ve gotten comfortable with those products.
The remaining 10%? That’s where things get spicy. Cardano, Avalanche, Sui, and Polkadot have never appeared in any major manager’s ETF before. For investors who’ve been dying to get exposure to these ecosystems but couldn’t justify buying them individually in client accounts, this changes everything.
Why This Matters More Than Another Single-Coin ETF
I’ve been writing about crypto markets since 2025’s bull run started gathering steam, and the same question keeps coming up in my inbox: “I own some Bitcoin and Ether ETFs now, but how do I think about the rest of the market?”
Most advisors were stuck. They could recommend BTC and ETH products all day long – those had the regulatory blessing, the liquidity, the track record. But trying to build a diversified crypto allocation meant either sending clients to unregulated exchanges (no thanks) or piecing together private funds with high fees and lockups.
This really meaningfully expands the audience that can access exposure to these different assets – especially for coins that don’t have spot ETFs yet.
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley nailed it when he said…
He’s not wrong. In my experience working with financial advisors, the biggest barrier to broader crypto allocation hasn’t been skepticism about the asset class anymore – it’s been operational friction. How do you hold Cardano in a retirement account? How do you rebalance Polkadot positions without creating taxable events everywhere?
BITW solves both problems in one stroke.
The Smart (and Not-So-Obvious) Design Choices
One detail that jumped out at me: the fund rebalances monthly instead of quarterly like most index ETFs.
In traditional markets, quarterly rebalancing works fine – the S&P 500 doesn’t usually see 300% moves in three months. Crypto laughs at that timeline. We’ve watched coins rocket from #15 to #4 (hello, Solana in 2023) or crash out of the top 20 completely in weeks.
Monthly rebalancing means BITW stays truer to its “top 10” mandate. No letting yesterday’s winner dominate forever, no getting stuck holding too much of last month’s disaster.
They also built in that 90/10 split deliberately. It’s conservative enough that risk-averse advisors can stomach it – “See? Nine-tenths of this is in assets you already understand” – while still delivering real diversification benefits.
Yes, There’s Risk – Let’s Not Sugarcoat It
Look, I’m excited about this launch. But we need to have the adult conversation too.
The crypto market just went through a nasty correction. Bitcoin dropped over 30% from its highs near $126,000. Smaller coins got absolutely crushed – some down 60-80% in weeks. An ETF that includes those smaller coins will feel that pain too, even with the 10% cap.
Monthly rebalancing cuts both ways. It prevents any single coin from completely dominating, but it also means selling winners to buy whatever’s fallen into the top 10. That can hurt in strong bull markets when Bitcoin outperforms everything else.
And let’s be real – we’re still early. Regulatory risk hasn’t disappeared. Exchange failures, though less common now, remain possible. The same concentration risks that plague crypto (looking at you, certain ecosystems with heavy venture backing) don’t vanish just because you put ten coins in a wrapper.
Who This ETF Is Actually For
In my view, BITW hits a sweet spot that nothing else quite reaches right now:
- Advisors who want 3-5% crypto exposure across client portfolios but don’t want to manage ten separate positions
- Retail investors using IRAs or 401(k) platforms where only ETFs are available
- People who’ve held Bitcoin and Ether for a while and want broader exposure without learning how to stake Cardano or bridge to Avalanche subnets
- Anyone who believes crypto is becoming a permanent asset class and wants the simplest possible way to express that view
It’s probably not for the degen who thinks the real alpha is in micro-cap meme coins or pre-sale tokens. This is the boring, grown-up version of crypto investing – which is exactly why it might matter more than any single-coin product launched this year.
The Bigger Picture: Crypto Growing Up
Something subtle is happening beneath all the price noise.
When spot Bitcoin ETFs launched, they proved institutions could hold crypto at scale. When Ether ETFs followed, they expanded the narrative to smart contract platforms. Now with BITW, we’re seeing the first real attempt at treating crypto as a legitimate asset class with its own internal diversification logic.
That’s huge.
It means conversations in wealth management offices are shifting from “Should we own any crypto?” to “How much crypto, and in what form?” It means portfolio construction tools will start including crypto as a standard sleeve alongside stocks, bonds, and commodities.
Most importantly, it means regular people – through their retirement accounts, their advisors, their brokerage apps – can now participate in crypto’s growth story without needing to become amateur fund managers.
The market caps of these top 10 coins combined already exceed many countries’ GDPs. They’re not going away. The question was never whether crypto would become investable at scale – it was when and how.
With BITW trading today with $1.5 billion behind it, I think we’re looking at a pretty clear answer.
Welcome to crypto’s next chapter.
