Bitwise files to sell the credit side of the AI buildout as an ETF

The listed AI trade is still a stock trade. On Friday, Bitwise Funds Trust asked the SEC to register an actively managed fund that would own the other side of the same buildout: corporate bonds of AI companies, data-center asset-backed securities, and project-finance debt.

The paper is Post-Effective Amendment No. 80 under the Securities Act, marked "Subject to Completion September 18, 2026." It proposes the Bitwise AI Bond ETF as a new series of the trust, to list on NYSE Arca. Bitwise Investment Manager, LLC is named as adviser. The fund "seeks to provide income." Shares may not be sold until the registration statement is effective.

What the paper calls AI Bonds

Under normal market conditions the fund would invest at least 80% of net assets plus borrowings in what it defines as AI Bonds. That basket has three sleeves.

The first is corporate debt issued by "AI Companies." An issuer qualifies if at least 50% of revenues, profits, operating income, or consolidated assets are tied to AI systems, or to data centers, computing and cloud infrastructure, semiconductors, networking, power, cooling, or related equipment and services. It also qualifies if it is principally engaged in owning and operating hyperscale data-center and cloud infrastructure used to develop or deliver AI products.

The second sleeve is structured credit: asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities, including single-asset, single-borrower deals, collateralized primarily by data centers, computing or networking equipment, or the lease, service, or usage revenues those assets generate.

The third is project finance: debt of special-purpose vehicles, joint ventures, or similar entities organized principally to finance the development, construction, acquisition, or operation of data centers or related AI infrastructure.

Up to 20% of net assets may sit outside that definition, including debt of electric utilities and independent power producers whose generation or transmission serves data-center demand, Treasuries, money-market instruments, other funds, and cash. The 80% name policy is non-fundamental. The board may change it without a shareholder vote on 60 days' written notice.

The fund would be actively managed and "does not seek to track the performance of an index." Allocations among the sleeves would rest on relative value, primary-market supply, spread and ratings dynamics, and liquidity. Bonds may be fixed- or floating-rate. Rule 144A and Regulation S securities, the institutional issues that do not carry a public registration, are expressly permitted, with no cap stated.

High-yield room, cash creations, and the data-center market

The paper allows debt of any credit quality. The adviser "expects" a majority of assets to be investment grade at purchase, a statement of intent rather than a floor. It may put up to 40% of net assets in below-investment-grade instruments, the high-yield bonds the prospectus also calls junk, and in unrated paper the adviser judges comparable.

It does not target a maturity or duration. The adviser "generally expects" portfolio duration between about three and eight years, and says duration may fall outside that range. Exchange-traded Treasury futures may be used to manage duration.

The fund is classified as non-diversified. It will concentrate more than 25% of net assets in the information technology sector, so performance would be tied to a narrow credit neighborhood rather than the broad bond market.

The objective is income. The paper sets the distribution floor at annual: dividends from net investment income, if any, are to be declared and paid at least annually; capital gains annually. That is not a monthly coupon. Until a later amendment specifies a more frequent policy, a holder would own an income fund that is not promising a regular check.

It "currently expects to effect a significant portion of its creations and redemptions for cash, rather than in-kind securities." A listed fund would then be buying, with cash, a book that can include single-asset, single-borrower data-center CMBS, special-purpose project debt, and Rule 144A paper the prospectus does not cap.

U.S. data-center securitization printed $9.51 billion in the first quarter of 2026, led by asset-backed deals and including a $2.05 billion single-asset, single-borrower transaction from QTS. In private-label CMBS through July 31, data centers appeared only in single-asset, single-borrower (SASB) deals: 9.8% of that $58.0 billion SASB book, and none of the conduit book, with the data-center figures resting on five loans. On March 19, Douglas Gimple of Diamond Hill wrote that spreads in data-center ABS and CMBS had stayed exceptionally tight as demand for AI-linked exposure increased, and that Diamond Hill's strategies then had limited exposure to those securitizations.

What the paper leaves blank

The document is a placeholder that reserves a name and starts a clock. The ticker field is blank. The sub-adviser line is an underscore; Bitwise would pay that sub-adviser out of its own fee, and the fund would not pay it directly. Jennifer Thornton and Daniela Padilla, both portfolio managers at Bitwise Investment Manager, are named as jointly responsible for day-to-day management, with their start date left as "_____ 2026." The fee table leaves Management Fees, Other Expenses, Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses, and Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses as "0.%"; Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees are 0.00%. The narrative still describes an annual unitary management fee of "0.%" of average daily net assets, out of which the adviser would pay transfer agency, custody, fund administration, legal, audit, and other ordinary costs, but not 12b-1 fees, brokerage, taxes, interest, or extraordinary expenses. The year-one and year-three dollar examples are "$." An expense-reimbursement agreement is listed in the exhibit index, with no waiver amount, cap, or term filled in. The filing checks the box for effectiveness 75 days after filing under Rule 485(a)(2), the automatic clock for a new series, and leaves the boxes for a specific calendar date unchecked. That is a registration timetable, not a listing date. A later amendment can reset it.

A crypto manager's second AI filing

Bitwise's 14 U.S.-listed ETFs held $6.68 billion as of Monday, $3.10 billion of it in the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Trust ABITB. This amendment adds a series. It does not describe a change to the trust's existing funds.

On August 31, the same trust put a subject-to-completion prospectus in front of the SEC for a Bitwise AI Cyber Defense ETF, an equity fund of 10 to 30 names, also with the ticker and fee left blank. The bond filing arrived 18 days later, a second blank-ticker AI registration from a manager whose listed funds are crypto.

The AI funds that already trade still own equities.

The Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF BAIQ and the iShares Future AI & Tech ETF BARTY are stock funds. The closest listed product to the data-center sleeve is still an equity fund, the Global X Data Center & Digital Infrastructure ETF ADTCR, a portfolio of data-center REITs, tower companies, and related stocks.

This filing would own the debt instead. Whether cash creations can be filled in a CMBS sleeve that, through July, rested on five data-center loans, and in 144A paper the prospectus does not cap, is what the registration does not answer.