Grayscale's Zcash ETF rose 24.7%, then announced a 3-for-1 split

The wrappers that hold the same coin finished within a tenth of a percentage point of each other. The coins did not. For the five sessions through Friday, September 18, the iShares Bitcoin Trust, BIBIT, which holds bitcoin, rose 5.1%. Two Hyperliquid funds rose 14.4% and 14.5%. Two AXRP funds rose 3.8% and 3.9%, through an 11.6% drop on Tuesday. Grayscale's Zcash ETF, ZCSH, a 2.50% trust that holds Zcash, rose 24.7% from the prior Friday's $94.40 and then said it would triple the share count.

The Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF, ASTCE, which holds crypto-industry equities rather than coins, is 19.6% higher this year; BIBIT is still 7.3% below its 2025 close. etf.net grades ASTCE an A in crypto-industry equities.

ZCSH is $877 million, converted to an ETF on August 25, and etf.net has not published a grade for it. The Block reported Friday that investors had put more than $233 million into the fund since that conversion, including $46.6 million on Wednesday and more than $112 million on September 8. The sponsor fee is ten times the 0.25% on BIBIT. Grayscale's prospectus sets that 2.50% as the sponsor's fee, from which it pays the trust's ordinary costs. At 8:00 a.m. ET Friday, Grayscale said holders of record at the close on Monday, September 28 will receive two extra shares for each one they own, payable after the close on September 29, with split-adjusted trading expected on September 30. The ticker stays ZCSH. The announcement did not say why a fund 24 days into its listed life needed the split. The prospectus lets the sponsor declare one when it believes the secondary-market price has moved outside a desirable trading range. Friday's close was $117.72; three-for-one is $39.24. The position's value does not change. The share count does.

Friday the shares fell 2.0%. The session high of $120.73 matched the 52-week high. Net asset value was $117.71, a cent under the close. After hours, as of 7:59 p.m. ET, the bid-ask mid was $125.35, 6.5% above that print. A 4 p.m. NAV that matches the last sale says the arbitrage worked at 4 p.m. It does not say the wrapper followed the coin through the night.

Fund closes below are Friday's. Bitcoin was at $81,809 as of 12:24 p.m. ET Saturday.

Bitcoin funds: four sessions, then Friday

BIBIT rose 5.1% on the week, to $46.02. Monday added 2.2%. Tuesday, the session of the Senate's failed cloture vote on the CLARITY Act, took 3.6% off. Wednesday, when the Federal Open Market Committee raised the federal-funds target by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00% on a 12–0 vote, BIBIT fell 0.2%. Thursday added 0.6%. Friday added 6.3% on 83.9 million shares in the regular session, against a 55.9 million average. The week was one session.

Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, BFBTC, another spot-bitcoin trust, rose 5.1%. The iShares Ethereum Trust, BETHA, which holds ether, rose 4.0%, with a 7.9% Friday after a 5.1% drop on Tuesday. etf.net grades BIBIT, BFBTC, and BETHA each a B in their spot categories, on the published method; all three carry a 0.25% fee. BIBIT is $59.9 billion. BETHA is $8.64 billion.

A 5.1% week is ordinary work for a fund whose annualized volatility is 49%. BIBIT is still 36% below its 52-week high of $71.82. Last week the same complex lost $463 million, with ARK's fund accounting for half. This week the price path and the creation path did not travel together.

Farside's prints went out, then in

Farside Investors, which publishes U.S. spot-bitcoin ETF creations and redemptions in millions of dollars, recorded $159.9 million of net inflows on Monday, $450.4 million of net outflows on Tuesday, and $295.9 million of net outflows on Wednesday. Tuesday's redemptions were concentrated in BFBTC ($214.8 million) and BIBIT ($161.7 million). Thursday, Farside figures cited by HedgeCo show about $159.5 million coming back in. Those four sessions net to about $427 million out. Friday's bitcoin-fund total was not a completed Farside print at our check. Creations are the authorized-participant machine matching share supply to the 4 p.m. NAV.

Solana, Hyperliquid, and AXRP did not copy bitcoin

The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, ABSOL, which holds Solana and stakes it, rose 12.1%, to $15.73, with a 13.4% Friday. etf.net grades it a B in spot Solana. The fee is 0.20%. Assets are $1.15 billion. Friday's Solana session was the week's entire Solana return, and then some: Tuesday had taken 5.3% off.

Grayscale's Hyperliquid Staking ETF, AHYPG, and the 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF, ATHYP, both A-graded in the broader crypto-spot group, rose 14.4% and 14.5%. They closed $32.72 and $53.61, a cent and a nickel off their 52-week highs. Fees are 0.29% and 0.30%. AHYPG is $201 million. Two sponsors, two wrappers, one coin, the same week.

The Bitwise AXRP ETF, AXRP, and Franklin's AXRP ETF, AXRPZ, rose 3.8% and 3.9%. That is the week's calm. Monday added 7.6% and 7.5%. Tuesday subtracted 11.6% and 11.6%. Friday added 9.2% and 9.1%. Bitwise charges 0.34%; Franklin charges 0.19%. etf.net grades both an A. On Friday Bitwise filed a post-effective amendment that leaves the sponsor fee at 0.34% and registers no additional shares.

The week's wrappers, Friday, September 18 close versus Friday, September 11:

Spot bitcoin funds clustered. The other sleeves did not.

Calls collected Friday. Leverage reset overnight

The iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, ABITA, an $83 million overlay that sells calls mostly on BIBIT shares, rose 4.5% on the week. etf.net grades it an A in crypto option income. As of Friday it was about 68% bitcoin and 33% BIBIT, with short September and October BIBIT calls struck at 41, 44, and 45. BIBIT closed at $46.02. Friday those written calls cost the holder 1.3 percentage points: ABITA rose 5.0% against BIBIT's 6.3%.

The Roundhill Bitcoin Covered Call Strategy ETF, CYBTC, a C-graded overlay with a 0.96% fee, returned 5.0% including a $0.10555 weekly payment that went ex on Wednesday, September 16. On price alone it rose 4.4%. The distribution is the product. It is not extra bitcoin.

The ProShares Ultra Bitcoin ETF, ABITU, which targets twice the daily Bloomberg Bitcoin Index, rose 9.6%. Twice BIBIT's week would have been 10.3%. The gap is the daily reset on a Tuesday that fell 3.6% in the unlevered fund and 7.3% in this one. etf.net grades ABITU an A among 2x crypto funds. The multiple is a one-day contract.

A TRX staker launched. No fee war arrived

Canary Capital's Staked TRX ETF, TRXS, began trading this week as a grantor trust: spot TRX plus delegated proof-of-stake rewards, not registered under the 1940 Act. It is not yet in our priced set, and the launch materials we saw did not state a fee. The assets, the sponsor said, are not FDIC- or SIPC-protected. That is the custody sentence every one of these trusts already carries.

On September 11, Grayscale filed an S-3/A to convert its Bitcoin Cash Trust, quoted over the counter as BCHG, into an ETF it would list on NYSE Arca under the same ticker. The trust charges 2.50%. The filing does not set a date. Bitwise's AXRP amendment left the 0.34% fee unchanged. Grayscale's Zcash split is extra paper, scheduled for the last days of the month.

Holders of ZCSH will own three times as many shares on September 30 and the same quantity of Zcash. The 2.50% will still compound against that position. The bitcoin shelf will still move as a pack. When the coins next refuse to move together, the week will look like this one.