ETF Fiasco: CoinShares’ Bitcoin Mining Fund Takes the Cake 🍰

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Oh, the Misfortunes! 🍀

  • The Valkyrie Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI) sinks lower than the deepest abyss, plummeting 43% year-to-date. 😱
  • Top holding IREN, with a 15% weight in the fund, has tumbled over 40% YTD, dragging the ETF’s performance into the depths of despair. 😣
  • While WGMI weeps, metal ETFs celebrate, with gold mining funds shining bright in the top five performers of 2025. 💎

In a year where misfortune seems to stalk every corner, CoinShares’ Valkyrie Bitcoin Mining (WGMI) ETF emerges as the black sheep of the family, down a staggering 43% year-to-date, as reported by Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. 🐑

This ETF, composed of bitcoin (BTC) miners, has seen its fair share of heartache. IREN (IREN), the largest holding, has lost a whopping 42%, while Core Scientific (CORZ) and Cipher Mining (CIFR) follow closely behind with declines of 48% and 52%, respectively. Even NVIDIA (NVDA), the tech giant, hasn’t escaped unscathed, dropping over 20%. 😥

Its investment strategy, once promising, now reads like a cautionary tale: “The ETF will invest in companies that derive at least 50% of their revenue or profits from bitcoin mining operations and/or from providing specialized chips, hardware, software, or other services to companies engaged in bitcoin mining.” WGMI, with 21 holdings and $147.2 million in total assets, stands as a monument to what could have been. 📜

Contrastingly, metals ETFs have basked in the glory of success, with gold mining ETFs leading the charge, up 38% year-to-date. It’s a tale of two cities, one of gold and one of… well, let’s just say something less precious. 💰

Bitcoin miners have battled against insurmountable odds this year, with the network hash rate soaring to dizzying heights, reaching nearly 832 EH/s. This has led to a tragic divergence between bitcoin’s price and the hash rate. 📈📉

Mining difficulty, too, has remained at its peak, making it nigh impossible for miners to unearth new bitcoins. And if that weren’t enough, transaction fees have been as low as a mouse’s whisper, further squeezing miner profitability. 🐭

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2025-03-31 13:55