LEGR vs WGMI

LEGRBFirst Trust Indxx Innovative Transaction & Process ETF

WGMICCoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF

In short

LEGR Blockchain, hold the coins. LEGR has tracked the Indxx Blockchain Index since January 2018, owning roughly 110 global companies that build with the technology or stand to benefit from it, rather than the tokens themselves.

WGMI The pickaxe trade, not the gold. WGMI skips bitcoin itself and buys the companies mining it, plus the chipmakers and software shops arming them, with a manager picking the names instead of a fixed index.

Stated mandate

LEGR The Fund seeks to track the performance of the Indxx Blockchain Index before fees and expenses. The index targets companies involved with blockchain technology or positioned to benefit from its use in business processes.

WGMI The Fund seeks total return. It is actively managed and invests primarily in companies connected with bitcoin mining, including miners and providers of specialized mining-related technology and services.

Why people hold it

• LEGR A first-wave name: launched January 2018, and it has tracked the same blockchain index through a full crypto boom and bust.
• Picks and shovels, not whitepapers: roughly 110 global stocks either working with blockchain or positioned to benefit from it inside their own business processes.
• Spreading the theme across about 110 operating companies keeps any single name from dominating, and the fund sits in the upper half of its global thematic peer group.

• WGMI Pure-play by rule: at least 80% of assets go to companies earning 50% or more of revenue from bitcoin mining, or from selling miners chips, hardware, software and services.coinshares.comsec.gov
• Actively managed, so the portfolio can shift between miners as power costs and hash economics reshuffle the field, rather than waiting on an index reconstitution.sec.gov
• Equities only. The fund does not hold bitcoin directly, through derivatives, or via bitcoin trusts, so what you own is the industry balance sheets, not the coin.sec.govcoinshares.com
• Listed since 2022 and actively traded, which is a long track record in crypto years and puts it in the upper half of its crypto-equity peer group.

Worth knowing

• LEGR The 0.65% expense ratio sits above the typical fee among global thematic ETFs, and several funds in that group charge a fraction of it.
• It trades thinly, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than on giant ETFs. Limit orders do real work here.
• Stocks, not coins. Crypto moves reach this fund only through share prices of companies where blockchain may be one line in a much larger business.

• WGMI 0.75% a year runs a little above the typical fund in its crypto-equity cohort. That is the toll for active stock picking over an index.
• No distributions. Whatever this does, it does through share price, not income.
• Narrow by design. Broader blockchain baskets like BKCH and BLOK spread across more of the crypto economy; WGMI stays on miners and their suppliers, US and overseas.

Full LEGR profile⁠

Full WGMI profile⁠