Volatility Shares Trust
06/28/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/28/2024 12:33
Summary Prospectus by Investment Company - Form 497K
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Summary Prospectus |
Before you invest, you may want to review the 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (the "Fund") statutory prospectus and statement of additional information, which contain more information about the Fund and its risks. The current statutory prospectus and statement of additional information dated June 28, 2024, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. You can find the Fund's statutory prospectus, statement of additional information, reports to shareholders, and other information about the Fund online at www.volatilityshares.com. You can also get this information at no cost by calling at (866) 261-0273 or by sending an email request to [email protected].
Important Information About the Fund
2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (the "Fund") seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (2x) the return of bitcoin for a single day, not for any other period. A "single day" is measured from the time the Fund calculates its net asset value ("NAV") to the time of the Fund's next NAV calculation. The return of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will be the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The Fund's returns for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from the Fund's stated multiple (2x) times the return of bitcoin for the same period. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if bitcoin's performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if the level of bitcoin increases. Longer holding periods, higher bitcoin volatility, and greater leveraged exposure each exacerbate the impact of compounding on an investor's returns. During periods of higher bitcoin volatility, the volatility of bitcoin may affect the Fund's return as much as or more than the return of bitcoin.
The Fund presents different risks than other types of funds. The Fund may not be suitable for all investors and should be used only by knowledgeable investors who understand the consequences of seeking daily leveraged (2x) investment results, including the impact of compounding on Fund performance. The Fund is intended to be used as a short-term trading vehicle. Investors in the Fund should actively manage and monitor their investments, as frequently as daily. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not actively monitor and manage their portfolio. An investor in the Fund could potentially lose the full value of their investment within a single day. The Fund does not invest directly in bitcoin. Instead, the Fund seeks to benefit from increases in the price of Bitcoin Futures Contracts (defined below) for a single day.
The Fund expects to gain 2x exposure to bitcoin by investing a portion of its assets in a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fund organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands (the "Subsidiary"). In order to qualify as a regulated investment company ("RIC") for purposes of federal income tax treatment under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the "Code"), the Fund will have to reduce its exposure to its Subsidiary on or around the end of each of the Fund's fiscal quarter ends. The Fund expects to reduce its exposure to its Subsidiary during these periods by investing in certain other investments as described below. During these periods, the Fund may not achieve its investment objective, and may return substantially less than two times (2x) the daily performance of bitcoin.
Investment Objective
The Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (2x) the daily performance of bitcoin. The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective over a period of time greater than a single day.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund ("Shares"). Investors may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example set forth below.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
| Management Fees | 1.85 | % | ||
| Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | 0.00 | % | ||
| Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses | 0.05 | % | ||
| Other Expenses | 0.00 | % | ||
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 1.90 | % |
Example
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. This example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund's operating expenses remain at current levels. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that investors may pay to buy and sell Shares.
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, your costs, based on these assumptions, would be:
| 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years |
| $193 | $597 | $1,026 | $2,222 |
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it purchases and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover will cause the Fund to incur additional transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, may affect the Fund's performance. For the fiscal period ended February 29, 2024, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 0% of the average value of its portfolio.
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Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund is an exchange-traded fund ("ETF") that seeks to achieve its investment objective primarily through managed exposure to bitcoin futures contracts that trade only on an exchange registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("Bitcoin Futures Contracts"), and cash, cash-like instruments or high-quality securities that serve as collateral to the Fund's investments in Bitcoin Futures Contracts ("Collateral Investments"). In this manner, the Fund seeks to provide investment results that correspond to twice the performance of bitcoin for a single day. The Fund does not invest directly in bitcoin. Instead, the Fund seeks to benefit from increases in the price of Bitcoin Futures Contracts for a single day.
The Fund also may invest in: reverse repurchase agreement transactions; shares of other investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the "1940 Act") that invest in similar securities and assets to those in which the Fund may invest. ("Other Investment Companies"); exchange traded options on Other Investment Companies; shares of other Bitcoin-linked exchange traded investment products not registered under the 1940 Act ("Bitcoin-Linked ETPs"); and swap agreement transactions that reference Other Investment Companies, bitcoin, Bitcoin-Linked ETPs, Bitcoin Futures Contracts, or bitcoin-related indexes.
The investment adviser to the Fund and the Subsidiary is Volatility Shares LLC (the "Adviser"). The investment sub-adviser to the Fund and the Subsidiary is Penserra Capital Management LLC (the "Sub-Adviser"). The Adviser oversees the Fund and the Sub-Adviser. The Sub-Adviser has day-to-day portfolio management responsibilities for the Fund. In serving as Sub-Adviser to the Fund, the Sub-Adviser does not conduct conventional investment research or analysis or forecast market movement or trends.
The Fund is classified as a "non-diversified company" under the 1940 Act.
Bitcoin Futures Contracts
In order to obtain 2x daily exposure to bitcoin, the Fund intends to typically enter into cash-settled Bitcoin Futures Contracts as the "buyer." In simplest terms, in a cash-settled futures market the counterparty pays cash to the buyer if the price of a futures contract goes up, and buyer pays cash to the counterparty if the price of the futures contract goes down. In order to maintain its 2x daily exposure to bitcoin, the Fund intends to exit its futures contracts as they near expiration and replace them with new futures contracts with a later expiration date. Futures contracts with a longer term to expiration may be priced higher than futures contracts with a shorter term to expiration, a relationship called "contango". When rolling futures contracts that are in contango the Fund will close its long position by selling the shorter term contract at a relatively lower price and buying a longer-dated contract at a relatively higher price. The presence of contango will adversely affect the performance of the Fund. Conversely, futures contracts with a longer term to expiration may be priced lower than futures contracts with a shorter term to expiration, a relationship called "backwardation". When rolling long futures contracts that are in backwardation, the Fund will close its long position by selling the shorter term contract at a relatively higher price and buying a longer-dated contract at a relatively lower price. The presence of backwardation may positively affect the performance of the Fund.
The Fund invests in Bitcoin Futures Contracts indirectly via the Subsidiary. The Subsidiary and the Fund will have the same investment adviser, investment sub-adviser and investment objective. The Subsidiary will also follow the same general investment policies and restrictions as the Fund. Except as noted herein, for purposes of this Prospectus, references to the Fund's investment strategies and risks include those of the Subsidiary. The Fund complies with the provisions of the 1940 Act governing investment policies and capital structure and leverage on an aggregate basis with the Subsidiary. Furthermore, the Adviser, as the investment adviser to the Subsidiary, complies with the provisions of the 1940 Act relating to investment advisory contracts as it relates to its advisory agreement with the Subsidiary. The Subsidiary also complies with the provisions of the 1940 Act relating to affiliated transactions and custody. Because the Fund intends to qualify for treatment as a RIC under the Code, the size of the Fund's investment in the Subsidiary will not exceed 25% of the Fund's total assets at or around each quarter end of the Fund's fiscal year. At other times of the year, the Fund's investments in the Subsidiary will significantly exceed 25% of the Fund's total assets. The Subsidiary's custodian is U.S. Bank, N.A..
If circumstances occur where market prices for Bitcoin Futures Contracts were not readily available, the Fund would fair value its Bitcoin Futures Contracts in accordance with its pricing and valuation policy and procedures for fair value determinations. Pursuant to those policies and procedures, the Adviser would consider various factors, such as pricing history; market levels prior to price limits or halts; supply, demand, and open interest in Bitcoin Futures Contracts; comparison to other major digital asset futures, such as ether; and bitcoin prices in the spot market. The Adviser would document its proposed pricing and methodology, detailing the factors that entered into the valuation.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a digital asset that can be transferred among participants on the bitcoin peer-to-peer network (the "Bitcoin Network") on a peer-to-peer basis via the Internet. Bitcoin can be transferred without the use of a central administrator or clearing agency, unlike other means of electronic payments. Because a central party is not necessary to administer bitcoin transactions or maintain the bitcoin ledger, the term decentralized is often used in descriptions of bitcoin.
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Bitcoin is based on the decentralized, open-source protocol of a peer-to-peer electronic network. No single entity owns or operates the Bitcoin Network. Bitcoin is not issued by governments, banks or any other centralized authority. The infrastructure of the Bitcoin Network is collectively maintained on a distributed basis by the network's participants, consisting of "miners", who run special software to validate transactions, developers, who maintain and contribute updates to the bitcoin network's source code, and users, who download and maintain on their individual computer a full or partial copy of the Bitcoin Blockchain (defined below) and related software. Anyone can be a user, developer, or miner. The Bitcoin Network is accessed through software, and software governs the creation, movement, and ownership of bitcoin. The source code for the Bitcoin Network and related software protocol is open-source, and anyone can contribute to its development. The value of bitcoin is in part determined by the supply of, and demand for, bitcoin in the global markets for the trading of bitcoin, market expectations for the adoption of bitcoin as a decentralized store of value, the number of merchants and/or institutions that accept bitcoin as a form of payment, and the volume of peer-to-peer transactions, among other factors.
Bitcoin transaction and ownership records are reflected on the blockchain ledger for bitcoin (the "Bitcoin Blockchain"). Miners authenticate and bundle bitcoin transactions sequentially into files called "blocks", which requires performing computational work to solve a cryptographic puzzle set by the Bitcoin Network's software protocol. Because each solved block contains a reference to the previous block, they form a chronological "chain" back to the first bitcoin transaction. Copies of the Bitcoin Blockchain are stored in a decentralized manner on the computers of each individual Bitcoin Network full node, i.e., any user who chooses to maintain on their computer a full copy of the Bitcoin Blockchain as well as related software. Each bitcoin is associated with a set of unique cryptographic "keys", in the form of a string of numbers and letters, which allow whoever is in possession of the private key to assign that bitcoin in a transfer that the Bitcoin network will recognize.
Collateral Investments
The Fund will invest assets in Collateral Investments. The Collateral Investments may consist of high-quality securities, which include: (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; and/or (3) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or determined by the Sub-Adviser to be of comparable quality. For these purposes, "investment grade" is defined as investments with a rating at the time of purchase in one of the four highest categories of at least one nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (e.g., BBB- or higher from S&P Global Ratings or Baa3 or higher from Moody's Investors Service, Inc.).
The Collateral Investments are designed to provide liquidity, serve as margin, or otherwise collateralize the Subsidiary's investments in Bitcoin Futures Contracts. The Fund expects that it will primarily invest its assets, and that the Subsidiary will primarily invest its assets, in Collateral Investments that are "securities," as such term is defined under the 1940 Act.
Other Investments
In order to help the Fund meet its daily investment objective by maintaining the daily desired level of leveraged exposure to bitcoin, maintain its tax status as a regulated investment company on days in and around quarter-end, help the Fund maintain its desired exposure to Bitcoin Futures Contracts when it is approaching or has exceeded position limits or accountability levels, or because of liquidity or other constraints, the Fund may invest in the following:
Reverse Repurchase Agreements
The Fund may invest in reverse repurchase agreements which are a form of borrowing in which the Fund sells portfolio securities to financial institutions and agrees to repurchase them at a mutually agreed-upon date and price that is higher than the original sale price, and use the proceeds for investment purchases.
As a result of the Fund repurchasing the securities at a higher price, the Fund will lose money by engaging in reverse repurchase agreement transactions, though the Adviser has agreed to pay, as part of its unitary investment management fee, the net cost of using reverse repurchase agreements.
As noted above, because the Fund intends to qualify for treatment as a RIC under the Code, the size of the Fund's investment in the Subsidiary will not exceed 25% of the Fund's total assets at or around each quarter end of the Fund's fiscal year (the "Asset Diversification Test"). At other times of the year, the Fund's investments in the Subsidiary will significantly exceed 25% of the Fund's total (or gross) assets.
When the Fund seeks to reduce its total assets exposure to the Subsidiary, it may use the short-term Treasury Bills it owns (and purchase additional Treasury Bills as needed) to transact in reverse repurchase agreement transactions, which are ostensibly loans to the Fund. Those loans will increase the gross assets of the Fund, which the Adviser expects will allow the Fund to meet the Asset Diversification Test. When the Fund enters into a reverse repurchase agreement, it will either (i) be consistent with Section 18 of the 1940 Act and maintain asset coverage of at least 300% of the value of the reverse repurchase agreement; or (ii) treat the reverse repurchase agreement transactions as derivative transactions for purposes of Rule 18f-4 under the 1940 Act ("Rule 18f-4"), including as applicable, the value-at-risk based limit on leverage risk.
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Other Investment Companies
The Fund may invest in shares of Other Investment Companies, that is, shares of investment companies registered under the 1940 Act that invest in similar securities and assets to those in which the Fund may invest.
Options on Other Investment Companies
The Fund may invest in options on Other Investment Companies, which are funds registered under the 1940 Act including exchange-traded funds, that invest in similar securities and assets to those in which the Fund may invest. An option is a contract that gives the purchaser of the option, in return for the premium paid, the right to buy shares of an investment company, from the writer of the option (in the case of a call option), or to sell shares of the investment company to the writer of the option (in the case of a put option) at a designated price during the term of the option. The premium paid by the buyer of an option will reflect, among other things, the relationship of the exercise price to the market price and the volatility of the shares of the investment company, the remaining term of the option, supply, demand, interest rates and/or currency exchange rates. The Other Investment Companies that serve as the reference asset for the option contracts utilized by the Fund will be RICs for tax purposes. The Fund may utilize "American" style options or "European" style options. American style options are exercisable on any date prior to the expiration date of the option contract. In contrast, European style options are exercisable only on the expiration date of the option contract.
Bitcoin-Linked ETPs
The Fund may invest in shares of Bitcoin-Linked ETPs, which are exchange-traded investment products not registered under the 1940 Act that derive their value from a basket of spot bitcoin, and trade intra-day on a national securities exchange. Bitcoin-Linked ETPs are passively managed and do not pursue active management investment strategies, and their sponsors do not actively manage the bitcoin held by the ETP. This means that the sponsor of the ETP does not sell bitcoin at times when its price is high or acquire bitcoin at low prices in the expectation of future price increases. Although the shares of a Bitcoin-Linked ETP are not the exact equivalent of a direct investment in bitcoin, they provide investors with an alternative that constitutes a relatively cost-effective way to obtain bitcoin exposure through the securities market.
Swaps that reference Other Investment Companies, Bitcoin, Bitcoin-Linked ETPs, Bitcoin Futures Contracts, or bitcoin-related indexes.
The Fund may invest in cash-settled swap agreements referencing Other Investment Companies, Bitcoin, Bitcoin-Linked ETPs, Bitcoin Futures Contracts or bitcoin-related indexes. Swap contracts are transactions entered into primarily with major global financial institutions for a specified period ranging from a day to more than one year. In a swap transaction, the Fund and a counterparty will agree to exchange or "swap" payments based on the change in value of an underlying asset or benchmark. For example, the two parties may agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of returns) earned or realized on a particular investment or instrument. In the case of the Fund, the reference asset can be shares of Other Investment Companies, Bitcoin, shares of Bitcoin-Linked ETPs, Bitcoin Futures Contracts, or bitcoin-related indexes.
Principal Risks
Daily rebalancing and the compounding of each day's return over time means that the return of the Fund for a period longer than a single day will be the result of each day's returns compounded over the period. This will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from twice the return of bitcoin for the same period. The Fund will lose money if bitcoin's performance is flat over time. The Fund can lose money regardless of the performance of bitcoin, as a result of daily rebalancing, bitcoin's volatility, compounding of each day's return and other factors.
As with all investments, there are certain risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund's Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund does not represent a complete investment program. An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and it is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency, the Adviser, Sub-Adviser or any of their affiliates. You should consider carefully the following risks before investing in the Fund. As a leveraged ETF, the unique and substantial risks associated with bitcoin and Bitcoin Futures Contracts, and the historic price volatility of Bitcoin Futures Contracts, are exacerbated.
Aggressive Investment Risk - Bitcoin Futures Contracts are relatively new investments. They are subject to unique and substantial risks, and historically, have been subject to significant price volatility. The value of an investment in the Fund could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. You may lose the full value of your investment within a single day. If you are not prepared to accept significant and unexpected changes in the value of the Fund and the possibility that you could lose your entire investment in the Fund you should not invest in the Fund.
The value of an investment in the Fund could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. You should be prepared to lose your entire investment. The Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective.
Compounding Risk - The Fund has a single day investment objective, and the Fund's performance for any other period is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The performance of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from twice (2x) of the daily return of bitcoin for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. Compounding affects all investments, but has a more significant impact on a leveraged fund. This effect becomes more pronounced as bitcoin volatility and holding periods increase.
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Leveraged Correlation Risk. A number of factors may affect the Fund's ability to achieve a high degree of leveraged (2x) correlation with bitcoin, and there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent the Fund from achieving its daily investment objective, and the percentage change of the Fund's NAV each day may differ, perhaps significantly in amount, and possibly even direction, from twice bitcoin on a given day.
A number of other factors may adversely affect the Fund's 2x correlation with bitcoin, including fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs associated with the use of derivatives, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions in order to improve tax efficiency, comply with regulatory restrictions, or for other reasons, each of which may negatively affect the Fund's correlation with bitcoin. The Fund may also be subject to large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being under- or over-exposed to bitcoin. Any of these factors could decrease correlation between the performance of the Fund and bitcoin and may hinder the Fund's ability to meet its daily investment objective.
Target Exposure and Rebalancing Risks. The Fund normally will seek to maintain notional exposure to bitcoin at 200%. However, in order to comply with certain tax qualification tests at the end of each tax quarter, the Fund may reduce its exposure to Bitcoin Futures Contracts on or about such date. If the value of Bitcoin Futures Contracts rises during such periods when the Fund has reduced its futures exposure to Bitcoin Futures Contracts, without gaining a similar increased exposure through Other Investment Companies, the performance of the Fund may be less than it would have been had the Fund maintained its exposure through such period.
In addition, significant and unpredictable increases in Bitcoin Futures Contracts margin rates relative to prevailing futures prices could result in the Fund not achieving its target 2x exposure and as such would cause the Fund to experience greater risk of failing to meet its target exposure of two times (2x) the daily performance of bitcoin, before fees and expenses.
Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund's investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund's daily investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may not successfully track the performance of bitcoin and may not achieve its investment objective. Additionally, the rebalancing of futures contracts may impact the trading in such futures contracts and may adversely affect the value of the Fund. For example, such trading may cause the Fund's futures commission merchants ("FCMs") to adjust their hedges. The trading activity associated with such transactions will contribute to the existing trading volume on the underlying futures contracts and may adversely affect the market price of such underlying futures contracts.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. The Sub-Adviser will apply investment techniques and risk analyses in making investment decisions for the Fund, but there can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Bitcoin Futures Investing Risk. The Fund is indirectly exposed to the risks of investing in bitcoin through its investments in Bitcoin Futures Contracts. Bitcoin is a new and highly speculative investment. The risks associated with bitcoin include the following:
| ● | Bitcoin is a new technological innovation with a limited history. There is no assurance that usage of bitcoin will continue to grow. A contraction in use of bitcoin may result in increased volatility or a reduction in the price of bitcoin, which could adversely impact the value of the Fund. The Bitcoin Network was launched in January 2009, platform trading in bitcoin began in 2010, and Bitcoin Futures trading began in 2017, each of which limits a potential shareholder's ability to evaluate an investment in the Fund. |
| ● | The Fund's investments in Bitcoin Futures Contracts are exposed to risks associated with the price of bitcoin, which is subject to numerous factors and risks. The price of bitcoin is impacted by numerous factors, including: |
| ○ | The total and available supply of bitcoin, including the possibility that a small group of early bitcoin adopters hold a significant proportion of the bitcoin that has thus far been created and that sales of bitcoin by such large holders may impact the price of bitcoin; |
| ○ | Global bitcoin demand, which is influenced by the growth of retail merchants' and commercial businesses' acceptance of bitcoin as payment for goods and services, the security of online digital asset trading platforms and public bitcoin addresses that hold bitcoin, the perception that the use and holding of bitcoin is safe and secure, the lack of regulatory restrictions on their use, and the reputation regarding the use of bitcoin for illicit purposes; |
| ○ | The fact that bitcoin is not presently widely accepted as a medium of exchange, which may be due to a number of common impediments and/or disadvantages to adopting the Bitcoin Network as a payment network, including the slowness of transaction processing and finality, variability of transaction fees, and volatility of the price of bitcoin; |
| ○ | Global bitcoin supply, which is influenced by similar factors as global bitcoin demand, in addition to fiat currency (i.e., government currency not backed by an asset such as gold) needs by miners and taxpayers who may liquidate bitcoin holdings to meet tax obligations; |
| ○ | Investors' expectations with respect to the rate of inflation of fiat currencies and deflation of bitcoin; |
| ○ | Foreign exchange rates between fiat currencies and digital assets such as bitcoin; |
| ○ | Interest rates; |
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| ○ | The continued operation of digital asset trading platforms in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, including their regulatory status, trading and custody policies, and cyber security; |
| ○ | Investment and trading activities of large investors, including private and registered funds, that may directly or indirectly invest in bitcoin; ○ Regulatory measures, if any, that restrict the use of bitcoin as a form of payment or the purchase or sale of bitcoin, including measures that restrict the direct or indirect participation in the bitcoin market by financial institutions or the introduction of bitcoin instruments; |
| ○ | The maintenance and development of the open-source software protocol of the Bitcoin Network; |
| ○ | Increased competition from other digital assets, including forks of the Bitcoin Network; |
| ○ | Developments in the information technology sector; |
| ○ | Global or regional political, economic or financial events and situations; |
| ○ | Investor or Bitcoin Network participant sentiments on the value or utility of bitcoin; and |
| ○ | The dedication of mining power to the Bitcoin Network and the willingness of bitcoin miners to clear bitcoin transactions for relatively low fees. |
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Negative developments in any of these factors could adversely impact an investment in the Fund.
| ● | A decline in the adoption of bitcoin could negatively impact the performance of the Fund. As a new asset and technological innovation, the bitcoin industry is subject to a high degree of uncertainty. The adoption of bitcoin will require growth in its usage for various applications that include retail and commercial payments, cross-border and remittance transactions, speculative investment and technical applications. Adoption of bitcoin will also require an accommodating regulatory environment. A lack of expansion in usage of bitcoin could adversely affect the Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. In addition, there is no assurance that bitcoin will maintain its value over the long-term. The value of bitcoin is subject to risks related to its usage. Even if growth in bitcoin adoption occurs in the near or medium-term, there is no assurance that bitcoin usage will continue to grow over the long-term. A contraction in use of bitcoin may result in increased volatility or a reduction in the price of bitcoin, which would adversely impact the value of the Fund's shares. Recently, bitcoin has come under scrutiny for its environmental impact, specifically the amount of energy consumed by bitcoin miners. Some companies have indicated they will cease accepting bitcoin for certain kinds of purchases due to such environmental concerns. To the extent such concerns persist, the demand for bitcoin and the speed of its adoption could be suppressed. |
| ● | Bitcoin trading prices are volatile, and shareholders could lose all or substantially all of their investment in the Fund. Speculators and investors who seek to profit from trading and holding bitcoin generate a significant portion of bitcoin demand. Bitcoin speculation regarding future appreciation in the value of bitcoin may inflate and make more volatile the price of a bitcoin. As a result, bitcoin may be more likely to fluctuate in value due to changing investor confidence in future appreciation in the price of bitcoin. Notably, bitcoin has been prone to rapid price declines, including significant declines occurring in a single day, throughout its history. For example, on March 12, 2020, bitcoin spot prices dropped by more than -37% on March 12, 2020, due to rapidly growing concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak. Front-month future contracts on the CME dropped -23.5% that day. |
The price of bitcoin and Bitcoin Futures Contracts may be impacted by events in other parts of the blockchain and digital asset ecosystem, even if such events are not directly related to the security or utility of bitcoin, the Bitcoin Network, or Bitcoin Futures Contracts. Such events may precipitate a significant decline in the price of bitcoin and Bitcoin Futures Contracts.
For example, in May 2022, the TerraUSD stablecoin experienced a loss of confidence, resulting in a 98% drop by the end of the month from its intended $1.00 USD peg. The collapse in the price of TerraUSD had wide consequences for the entire blockchain and digital asset ecosystem. The drop in TerraUSD contributed to the collapse of crypto lending platforms Celsius and Voyager, as well as prominent crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. Many digital assets were dragged down by the news, including bitcoin, which dropped from its recent high $47,062 in March 30, 2022, to $19,785 by June 30, 2022, a drop of more than 58%.
In November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. ("FTX"), a major digital asset trading platform, filed for bankruptcy following a halt in customer withdrawals and allegations of mismanagement of customer assets. The announcement precipitated steep price drops across various digital assets, including Bitcoin, which lost more than 25% of its value in the immediate wake of the revelations.
On June 5, 2023, The SEC charged Binance Holdings Ltd. ("Binance"), which operates the largest crypto asset trading platform in the world, Binance.com; BAM Trading Services Inc., which, together with Binance, operates the crypto asset trading platform, Binance.US; and their founder, Changpeng Zhao, with a variety of securities law violations.
Future announcements and events related to bitcoin, the Bitcoin Network, other digital assets, NFTs, and digital asset firms, including digital asset trading platforms, lending platforms, hedge funds, market makers, and custodians, may significantly impact Bitcoin Futures Contracts prices and expose the Fund to significant risks.
| ● | Regulation of participants in the bitcoin ecosystem continues to evolve in both the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, which may restrict the use of bitcoin or otherwise impact the demand for bitcoin. As a technology, the Bitcoin Network is governed by its internal protocols and source code; however, the use by individuals or businesses of the Bitcoin Network and bitcoin may be subject to government regulation. Both domestic and foreign regulators and governments have increased focus on the use of the Bitcoin Network and bitcoin since 2013. Many digital asset platforms are unlicensed, unregulated, operate without extensive supervision by governmental authorities, and do not provide the public with significant information regarding their ownership structure, management team, corporate practices, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance. In particular, those located outside the United States may be subject to significantly less stringent regulatory and compliance requirements in their local jurisdictions, and may take the position that they are not subject to laws and regulations that would apply to a national securities exchange or designated contract market in the United States, or may, as a practical matter, be beyond the ambit of U.S. regulators. As a result, trading activity on or reported by these digital asset platforms is generally significantly less regulated than trading in regulated U.S. securities and commodities markets, and may reflect behavior that would be prohibited in regulated U.S. trading venues. In the U.S., federal and certain state authorities have exercised jurisdiction over specific uses of the Bitcoin Network and bitcoin, typically in the context of money service business regulation. Some foreign regulators and governments have exercised similar regulatory oversight; however, other jurisdictions have determined that regulatory action was premature or that the use of the Bitcoin Network should be prohibited or limited for reasons such as incompatibility with capital controls or financial system risks. Bitcoin market disruptions and resulting governmental interventions are unpredictable, and may make bitcoin illegal altogether. Future foreign regulations and directives may conflict with those in the U.S., and such regulatory actions may restrict or make bitcoin illegal in foreign jurisdictions. Future regulations and directives may impact the demand for bitcoin, and may also affect the ability of digital asset trading platforms to operate and for other market participants to enter into bitcoin transactions. Currently, there is either a fragmentation of regulatory efforts or a general lack of regulation in U.S. and foreign markets. As a result of fragmented regulatory efforts or lack of regulation, individuals or groups may engage in fraud of market manipulation. Further, the bitcoin market globally and in the United States is not subject to comparable regulatory guardrails as exist in regulated securities markets. Many bitcoin trading venues lack certain safeguards put in place by exchanges for more traditional assets to enhance the stability of trading on the exchanges and prevent "flash crashes," such as limit-down circuit breakers. As a result, the prices of bitcoin on trading venues may be subject to larger and/or more frequent sudden declines than assets traded on more traditional exchanges. Tools to detect and deter fraudulent or manipulative trading activities such as market manipulation, front-running of trades, and wash-trading may not be available to or employed by digital asset platforms, or may not exist at all. Over the past several years, some digital asset platforms have been closed due to fraud and manipulative activity, business failure or security breaches. In many of these instances, the customers of such digital asset platforms were not compensated or made whole for the partial or complete losses of their account balances in such digital asset platforms. The closure or temporary shutdown of a digital asset platform used in calculating the value of the Bitcoin Futures Contracts could adversely affect the value of the Fund. |
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To the extent that future regulatory actions or policies limit or restrict bitcoin usage, bitcoin trading or the ability to convert bitcoin to fiat currencies, the demand for bitcoin may be reduced, which may adversely affect investment in the Fund's shares. Regulation of bitcoin continues to evolve, the ultimate impact of which remains unclear and may adversely affect, among other things, the availability, value or performance of bitcoin and, thus, the Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. Moreover, in addition to exposing the Fund to potential new costs and expenses, additional regulation or changes to existing regulation may also require changes to the Fund's investment strategies. Although there continues to be uncertainty about the full impact of these and other regulatory changes, it is the case that the Fund may be subject to a more complex regulatory framework, and incur additional costs to comply with new requirements as well as to monitor for compliance with any new requirements going forward.
| ● | Sales of newly mined bitcoin may cause the price of bitcoin to decline, which could negatively affect an investment in the Fund. Approximately 450 newly mined bitcoin are created each day. If the parties engaged in bitcoin mining choose not to hold the newly mined bitcoin, and, instead, make them available for sale, there can be downward pressure on the price of bitcoin. A bitcoin mining operation may be more likely to sell a higher percentage of its newly created bitcoin, and more rapidly so, if it is operating at a low profit margin, thus reducing the price of bitcoin. Lower bitcoin prices may result in further tightening of profit margins for miners and worsening profitability, thereby potentially causing even further selling pressure. Decreasing profit margins and increasing sales of newly mined bitcoin could result in a reduction in the price of bitcoin, which could adversely impact an investment in the Fund. |
| ● | Disruptions at digital asset trading platforms and potential consequences of a digital asset trading platform's failure could adversely affect an investment in the Fund. Digital asset trading platforms operate websites on which users can trade bitcoin for U.S. dollars, other government currencies or other digital assets. Trades on digital asset trading platforms are unrelated to transfers of bitcoin between users via the Bitcoin Network. Bitcoin trades on digital asset trading platforms are recorded on the digital asset trading platform's internal ledger only, and each internal ledger entry for a trade will correspond to an entry for an offsetting trade in U.S. dollars, other government currency or other digital asset. Digital asset trading platforms have a limited history, and during this limited history, bitcoin prices on the digital asset markets generally, and on digital asset platforms individually, have been volatile and subject to influence by many factors, including operational interruptions. Unlike exchanges for more traditional assets, such as equity securities and futures contracts, bitcoin and digital asset trading venues are largely unregulated, may be operating out of compliance with regulation and are highly fragmented. As a result, individuals or groups may engage in fraud or market manipulation. Since 2009, several digital asset trading platforms have been closed or experienced disruptions due to fraud, failure, security breaches or distributed denial of service attacks a/k/a "DDoS Attacks." A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of network by overwhelming the target or its infrastructure with a flood of internet traffic. In many of these instances, the customers of such exchanges were not compensated or made whole for the partial or complete losses of their funds held at the exchanges. In 2014, the largest digital asset trading platform at the time, Mt. Gox, filed for bankruptcy in Japan amid reports the exchange lost up to 850,000 bitcoin, then valued then at over $450 million. Digital asset trading platforms are also appealing targets for hackers and malware. In August 2016, Bitfinex, a digital asset trading platform located in Hong Kong, reported a security breach that resulted in the theft of approximately 120,000 bitcoin valued at the time at approximately 6 $65 million, a loss which was socialized and allocated to all Bitfinex account holders, regardless of whether the account holder held bitcoin or cash in their account. In November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. ("FTX"), a major digital asset trading platform, filed for bankruptcy following a halt in customer withdrawals. The potential for instability of digital asset trading platforms and the closure or temporary shutdown of exchanges due to fraud, business failure, hackers, DDoS or malware, or government-mandated regulation may reduce confidence in bitcoin, which may result in greater volatility in bitcoin. |
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| ● | Demand for bitcoin is driven, in part, by its status as the most prominent and secure digital asset. It is possible that a digital assets other than bitcoin (often referred to as "Altcoins") could have features that make it more desirable to a material portion of the digital asset user base, resulting in a reduction in demand for bitcoin, which could have a negative impact on the price of bitcoin and adversely affect the Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. The Bitcoin Network and bitcoin, as an asset, hold a "first-to-market" advantage over other digital assets. This first-to-market advantage is driven in large part by having the largest user base and, more importantly, the largest combined mining power in use to secure the Blockchain and transaction verification system. Having a large mining network results in greater user confidence regarding the security and long-term stability of a digital asset's network and its blockchain; as a result, the advantage of more users and miners makes a digital asset more secure, which makes it more attractive to new users and miners, resulting in a network effect that strengthens the first-to-market advantage. Bitcoin also enjoys significantly greater acceptance and usage than other digital asset networks in the retail and commercial marketplace, due in large part to the relatively well-funded efforts of payment processing companies. However, it is possible that other blockchains will emerge that are similarly designed to serve as an alternative payment system, such as those focused on privacy through the use of zero-knowledge cryptography. These alternative blockchains have in the past and may in the future seek to compete with the Bitcoin Network by offering networks that improve the speed of transaction processing, address issues in the finality and variability of transaction fees in the Bitcoin Networks, and with lesser volatility in the digital asset's price than bitcoin. In addition, it is also possible that other digital assets and trading systems could become more widely accepted and used than bitcoin. The market demand for these alternative blockchains may reduce the market demand for bitcoin which would adversely impact the price of bitcoin. Despite the marked first-mover advantage of the Bitcoin Network over other digital assets, it is possible that an Altcoin could become materially popular due to either a perceived or exposed shortcoming of the Bitcoin Network protocol that is not immediately addressed by the bitcoin developers or a perceived advantage of an altcoin that includes features not incorporated into bitcoin. For example, the development of digital self-executing contracts (also known as "smart contracts" or "DeFi") on the Ethereum network has permitted the value of its native unit (ether) to rival bitcoin for periods of time. If an Altcoin obtains significant market share (either in market capitalization, mining power or use as a payment technology), this could reduce bitcoin's market share and have a negative impact on the demand for, and price of, bitcoin. Finally, the continued adoption of bitcoin may require growth in its usage as a means of payment. The slowness of transaction processing and the variability of transaction fees are significant impediments to the widespread adoption of bitcoin. To address these issues, participants have created secondary networks that layer on top of the blockchain to facilitate small, low-cost transactions (e.g., Lightning Network). These secondary networks may be more vulnerable to fraud and malicious attacks and may experience greater price volatility. In addition, participants have been slow to adopt these secondary networks. If the adoption and use of bitcoin slows or contracts, bitcoin may become less liquid, and the price of bitcoin may experience greater volatility. |
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| ● | Miners may cease expanding processing power to create blocks and verify transactions if they are not adequately compensated. Miners generate revenue from both newly created bitcoin (known as the "block reward") and from fees taken upon verification of transactions. If the aggregate revenue from transaction fees and the block reward is below a miner's cost, the miner may cease operations. An acute cessation of mining operations would reduce the collective processing power on the Blockchain, which would adversely affect the transaction verification process by temporarily decreasing the speed at which blocks are added to the Blockchain and make the Blockchain more vulnerable to a malicious actor obtaining control in excess of 50 percent of the processing power on the Blockchain. Reductions in processing power could result in material, though temporary, delays in transaction confirmation time. Any reduction in confidence in the transaction verification process or mining processing power may adversely impact the price of bitcoin. Furthermore, the block reward will decrease over time. In the summer of 2020, the block reward was reduced from 12.5 to 6.25 bitcoin, and it will further reduce to 3.125 bitcoin in 2024. As the block reward continues to decrease over time, the mining incentive structure will transition to a higher reliance on transaction verification fees in order to incentivize miners to continue to dedicate processing power to the Blockchain. If transaction verification fees become too high, the marketplace may be reluctant to use bitcoin. Decreased demand for bitcoin may adversely affect its price, which may adversely affect an investment in the Fund. |
| ● | Bitcoin Network development contributors could propose amendments to the Bitcoin Network's protocols and software that, if accepted and authorized by large groups of Bitcoin Network users, could adversely affect an investment in the Fund. The Bitcoin Network is an open-source project meaning that any developer or computer scientist may review, propose changes to and develop software clients for the Bitcoin Network protocols. Although a small group of individuals referred to as the Core Developers previously exercised significant influence over the direction of Bitcoin Network development, no single party or group controls what refinements or improvements to the Bitcoin Network's source code are proposed, approved or produced as upgrades or new software clients for Bitcoin Network users. A software update or new software client may alter the protocols and software that govern the Bitcoin Network and the properties of bitcoin, including the irreversibility of transactions and limitations on the mining of new bitcoin. When a modification is introduced and a substantial majority of users and miners consent to the modification, the change is implemented, and the Bitcoin Network remains uninterrupted. However, if less than a substantial majority of users and miners consent to the proposed modification, and the modification is not compatible with the software prior to its modification, the consequence would be what is known as a "fork" (i.e., "split") of the Bitcoin Network (and the Blockchain), with one prong running the pre-modified software and the other running the modified software. The effect of such a fork would be the existence of two versions of the Bitcoin Network running in parallel, but with each version's underlying asset and blockchain lacking interchangeability. Additionally, a fork could be introduced by an unintentional, unanticipated software flaw in the multiple versions of otherwise compatible software users run. Although several chain forks have been addressed by community-led efforts to merge the two chains, such a fork could adversely affect Bitcoin's viability. It is possible, however, that a substantial number of Bitcoin users and miners could adopt an incompatible version of Bitcoin while resisting community-led efforts to merge the two chains. This would result in a permanent fork. On August 1, 2017, after 7 extended debates among developers as to how to improve the Bitcoin network's transaction capacity, the Bitcoin network was forked by a group of developers and miners resulting in the creation of a new blockchain, which underlies the new digital asset "Bitcoin Cash" alongside the original Bitcoin Blockchain. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash now operate on separate, independent blockchains. Although the Bitcoin Network remained unchanged after the fork, it is unclear how such actions will affect the long-term viability of bitcoin and, accordingly, may adversely affect an investment in the Fund. |
| ● | The decentralized structure of Bitcoin Network software development may prevent the formation of a consensus on how to improve and modify the Bitcoin Network, which could prevent needed or desirable updates and thereby adversely impact an investment in the Fund. The lack of a formal or informal centralized structure in the development of Bitcoin Network means that parties with potentially competing motives and incentives must generate a consensus on how best to improve key elements of the Bitcoin Network protocols, such as how best to increase the transaction capacity of the Bitcoin Network. If developer proposals to improve the Bitcoin Network's protocols are incapable of obtaining an overwhelming consensus for adoption, a proposal may either be abandoned or indefinitely delayed pending the formation of consensus or the proposal may result in a fork. If a desirable or necessary improvement to the Bitcoin Network protocols is not implemented, it may have a negative impact on the functioning of the Bitcoin Network or the growth of user adoption. Any such delay may, therefore, have a negative impact on the secondary market price of bitcoin and the Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. |
| ● | The open-source structure of the Bitcoin Network protocol means that the contributors to the protocol are generally not directly compensated for their contributions in maintaining and developing the protocol. A failure to properly monitor and upgrade the protocol could damage the Bitcoin Network and, therefore, an investment in the Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. As the Bitcoin Network protocol is not sold and its use does not generate revenues for contributors, contributors are generally not compensated for maintaining and updating the Bitcoin Network protocol. Although some bitcoin industry participants have funded core developers, this type of financial incentive is not typical. The lack of guaranteed financial incentive for contributors to maintain or develop the Bitcoin Network and the lack of guaranteed resources to adequately address emerging issues with the Bitcoin Network may reduce incentives to address the issues adequately or in a timely manner. This may have a negative impact on the secondary market price of bitcoin and an investment in the Fund. |
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| ● | Intellectual property rights claims may adversely affect the operation of the Bitcoin Network. Third parties may assert intellectual property claims relating to the holding and transfer of digital assets and their source code. Regardless of the merit of any intellectual property or other legal action, any threatened action that reduces confidence in the Bitcoin network's long-term viability or the ability of end-users to hold and transfer bitcoin may adversely affect an investment in the Fund. Additionally, a meritorious intellectual property claim could prevent end-users from accessing the Bitcoin Network or holding or transferring their bitcoin. As a result, an intellectual property claim could adversely affect an investment in the Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. |
| ● | A malicious actor may attack the Bitcoin Network in an effort to prevent its function, which may adversely impact an investment in the Fund. A malicious actor may attack the Bitcoin Network in a number of ways, including a "50 Percent Attack" or a spam attack. If a malicious actor obtains a majority of the processing power (referred to herein as "aggregate hashrate") dedicated to mining on the Bitcoin Network, it will be able to exert unilateral control over the addition of blocks to the Blockchain. As long as the malicious actor enjoys this majority it may be able to "double-spend" its own bitcoin (i.e., spend the same bitcoin in two or more conflicting transactions) as well as prevent the confirmation of other Bitcoin transactions. If such a scenario were to materialize, it could adversely affect an investment in the Fund. More simply, a malicious actor could attempt to flood the pool of unconfirmed transactions (known as the "mempool") with tens of thousands of transactions in an effort to significantly slow the confirmation of legitimate transactions across the Bitcoin Network. Such a delay, if sustained for extended periods of time, could negatively impact the secondary market price of Bitcoin. These or any other form of attack on the Bitcoin Network could adversely affect an investment the Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. Moreover, in the past, flaws in the source code for digital assets have been exposed and exploited, including flaws that disabled some functionality for users, exposed users' personal information and/or resulted in the theft of users' digital assets. The cryptography underlying bitcoin could prove to be flawed or ineffective, or developments in mathematics and/or technology, including advances in digital computing, algebraic geometry and quantum computing, could result in such cryptography becoming ineffective. In any of these circumstances, a malicious actor may be able to compromise the security of the Bitcoin Network, which would adversely affect the value of the Fund. Moreover, functionality of the Bitcoin Network may be negatively affected such that it is no longer attractive to users, thereby dampening demand for bitcoin. Even if another digital asset other than bitcoin were affected by similar circumstances, any reduction in confidence in the source code or cryptography underlying digital assets generally could negatively affect the demand for digital assets and therefore adversely affect the value of the Fund. |
| ● | In the event of widespread disruption to the Internet, the market for bitcoins may become dangerously illiquid. The Bitcoin Network's functionality relies on the Internet. A significant disruption of Internet connectivity affecting large numbers of users or geographic areas could impede the functionality of the Bitcoin Network and adversely affect the Bitcoin Futures Contracts in which the Fund invests. In addition, certain features of the Bitcoin Network, such as decentralization, open source protocol, and reliance on peer-to-peer connectivity, may increase the risk of fraud or cyber-attack by potentially reducing the likelihood of a coordinated response. |
Futures Contracts Risk. Risks of futures contracts include: (i) an imperfect correlation between the value of the futures contract and the underlying asset; (ii) possible lack of a liquid secondary market; (iii) the inability to close a futures contract when desired; (iv) losses caused by unanticipated market movements, which may be unlimited; (v) an obligation for the Fund to make daily cash payments to maintain its required margin, particularly at times when the Fund may have insufficient cash; and (vi) unfavorable execution prices from rapid selling. Unlike equities, which typically entitle the holder to a continuing stake in a corporation, futures contracts normally specify a certain date for settlement in cash based on the reference asset. As the futures contracts approach expiration, they may be replaced by similar contracts that have a later expiration. This process is referred to as "rolling." If the market for these contracts is in "contango," meaning that the prices of futures contracts in the nearer months are lower than the price of contracts in the distant months, the sale of the near-term month contract would be at a lower price than the longer-term contract, resulting in a cost to "roll" the futures contract. The actual realization of a potential roll cost will be dependent upon the difference in price of the near and distant contract. The costs associated with rolling Bitcoin Futures Contracts typically are substantially higher than the costs associated with other futures contracts and may have a significant adverse impact on the performance of the Fund. Because the margin requirement for futures contracts is less than the value of the assets underlying the futures contract, futures trading involves a degree of leverage. As a result, a relatively small price movement in a futures contract may result in immediate and substantial loss, as well as gain, to the investor. For example, if at the time of purchase, 40% of the value of the futures contract is deposited as margin, a subsequent 20% decrease in the value of the futures contract would result in a loss of half of the margin deposit, before any deduction for the transaction costs, if the account were then closed out. A decrease in excess of 40% would result in a loss exceeding the original margin deposit, if the futures contract were closed out. Thus, a purchase or sale of a futures contract may result in losses in excess of the amount initially invested in the futures contract. However, the Fund would presumably have sustained comparable losses if, instead of investing in the futures contract, it had invested in the underlying financial instrument and sold it after the decline.
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Bitcoin Futures Contracts Risk. In addition to the risks of futures contracts generally, the market for Bitcoin Futures Contracts has additional unique risks. The market for Bitcoin Futures Contracts may be less developed, less liquid and more volatile than more established futures markets. While the bitcoin futures market has grown substantially since bitcoin futures commenced trading, there can be no assurance that this growth will continue. Bitcoin Futures Contracts are subject to collateral requirements and daily limits may impact the Fund's ability to achieve the desired exposure. If the Fund is unable to meet its investment objective, the Fund's returns may be lower than expected. Additionally, these collateral requirements may require the Fund to liquidate its position when it otherwise would not do so.
The performance of Bitcoin Futures Contracts, in general, has historically been highly correlated to the performance of bitcoin. However, there can be no guarantee that this will continue. Transaction costs (including the costs associated with futures investing), position limits, the availability of counterparties and other factors may impact the cost of Bitcoin Futures Contracts and decrease the correlation between the performance of Bitcoin Futures Contracts and bitcoin, over short or even long-term periods. In addition, the performance of back-month futures contracts is likely to differ more significantly from the performance of the spot prices of bitcoin. To the extent the Fund is invested in back-month Bitcoin Futures Contracts, the performance of the Fund should be expected to deviate more significantly from the performance of bitcoin. The differences in the prices of bitcoin and Bitcoin Futures Contracts will expose the Fund to risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in bitcoin, including larger losses or smaller gains.
Currently, the Fund does not anticipate that the liquidity of Bitcoin Futures Contracts will have any material negative impact on the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective or meet any redemptions. If the Fund's ability to obtain exposure to Bitcoin Futures Contracts were to be disrupted for any reason, including, for example, limited liquidity in the bitcoin futures market, a disruption to the bitcoin futures market, or as a result of margin requirements, position limits, accountability levels, or other limitations imposed by the Fund's FCMs, the listing exchanges, or the CFTC, the Adviser would take such action as it believes appropriate and in the best interest of the Fund in consideration of the facts and circumstances at such time, including to underleverage the Fund, relative to its 2x investment objective, by an amount reflecting prevailing position limits.
Additionally, the ability of the Fund to obtain leveraged (2x) exposure to Bitcoin Futures Contracts is limited by certain tax rules that restrict the amount the Fund can invest in its wholly owned subsidiary as of the end of each tax quarter. Exceeding this amount may have tax consequences; see the section entitled "Tax Risk" in the Fund's Prospectus for more information.
Cost of Futures Investment Risk. When a Bitcoin Futures Contract is nearing expiration, the Fund will generally sell it and use the proceeds to buy a Bitcoin Futures Contract with a later expiration date. This is commonly referred to as "rolling". The costs associated with rolling Bitcoin Futures Contracts typically are substantially higher than the costs associated with other futures contracts and may have a significant adverse impact on the performance of the Fund.
If the Fund rolls Bitcoin Futures Contracts that are in contango, the Fund would sell a lower priced, expiring contract and purchase a higher priced, longer-dated contract. The price difference between the expiring contract and longer-dated contract associated with rolling Bitcoin Futures Contracts is typically substantially higher than the price difference associated with rolling other futures contracts. Bitcoin futures have historically experienced extended periods of contango. Contango in the bitcoin futures market may have a significant adverse impact on the performance of the Fund and may cause Bitcoin Futures Contracts and the Fund to underperform spot bitcoin. Both contango and backwardation would reduce the Fund's correlation to spot bitcoin and may limit or prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. The impact of both contango and backwardation may also be greater to the extent the Fund invests in back-month Bitcoin Futures Contracts.
Derivatives Risk. In addition to Bitcoin Futures Contracts, the Fund may obtain exposure through the following other derivatives: options on Other Investment Companies and swap agreement transactions that reference Other Investment Companies, Bitcoin, Bitcoin-Linked ETPs, Bitcoin Futures Contracts, or bitcoin-related indexes.
Investing in derivatives may be considered aggressive and may expose the Fund to risks different from, or possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in the reference asset(s) underlying the derivative (e.g., the securities or commodities contained in the Fund). The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities or commodities. The risks of using derivatives include: 1) the risk that there may be imperfect correlation between the price of the financial instruments and movements in the prices of the reference asset(s); 2) the risk that an instrument is mispriced; 3) credit or counterparty risk on the amount a Fund expects to receive from a counterparty; 4) the risk that securities prices, interest rates and currency markets will move adversely and a Fund will incur significant losses; 5) the risk that the cost of holding a financial instrument might exceed its total return; and 6) the possible absence of a liquid secondary market for a particular instrument and possible exchange imposed price fluctuation limits, either of which may make it difficult or impossible to adjust a Fund's position in a particular instrument when desired. Each of these factors may prevent a Fund from achieving its investment objective and may increase the volatility (i.e., fluctuations) of the Fund's returns. Because derivatives often require limited initial investment, the use of derivatives also may expose a Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested.
The performance of a Bitcoin-Linked ETP may not track the performance of its underlying benchmark due to embedded costs and other factors. Thus, to the extent the Fund invests in swaps that use a Bitcoin-Linked ETP as the reference asset, the Fund may be subject to greater correlation risk and may not achieve as high a degree of correlation with its investment objective than if the Fund only used Bitcoin Futures Contracts.
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Further, the Fund may invest in options on Other Investment Companies, which generally require less capital than equivalent stock transactions. They may return smaller dollar figures but a potentially greater percentage of the investment than equivalent stock transactions. As an options holder, the potential loss is limited to the premium paid for the contract while the potential gain is often unlimited. While leverage means the percentage returns can be significant, the amount of cash required may be smaller than equivalent stock transactions. As an options holder, the Fund risks the entire amount of the premium it pays. But as an options writer, it takes on a much higher level of risk. For example, if the Fund writes an uncovered call, it faces unlimited potential loss, since there is no cap on how high a stock price can rise. When buying options, a Fund risks losing the premium paid, plus commissions and fees.
Counterparty Risk - The Fund will be subject to credit risk (i.e., the risk that a counterparty is unwilling or unable to make timely payments or otherwise meet its contractual obligations) with respect to the amount the Fund expects to receive from counterparties to: Bitcoin Futures Contracts; reverse repurchase agreements; options on Other Investment Companies; or swaps on Other Investment Companies, Bitcoin, Bitcoin-Linked ETPs, Bitcoin Futures Contracts, or bitcoin-related indexes.
The Fund may be negatively impacted if a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations under such an agreement. The Fund may experience significant delays in obtaining any recovery in a bankruptcy or other reorganization proceeding and the Fund may obtain only limited recovery or may obtain no recovery in such circumstances. In order to attempt to mitigate potential counterparty credit risk, the Fund typically enters into transactions with major financial institutions.
The counterparty to an exchange-traded futures contract is subject to the credit risk of the clearing house and the FCM through which it holds its position. Specifically, the FCM or the clearing house could fail to perform its obligations, causing significant losses to the Fund. For example, the Fund could lose margin payments it has deposited with an FCM as well as any gains owed but not paid to the Fund, if the FCM or clearing house becomes insolvent or otherwise fails to perform its obligations. Credit risk of market participants with respect to derivatives that are centrally cleared is concentrated in a few clearing houses and it is not clear how an insolvency proceeding of a clearing house would be conducted and what impact an insolvency of a clearing house would have on the financial system. Under current CFTC regulations, a FCM maintains customers' assets in a bulk segregated account. If a FCM fails to do so, or is unable to satisfy a substantial deficit in a customer account, its other customers may be subject to risk of loss of their funds in the event of that FCM's bankruptcy. In that event, in the case of futures, the FCM's customers are entitled to recover, even in respect of property specifically traceable to them, only a proportional share of all property available for distribution to all of that FCM's customers. In addition, if the FCM does not comply with the applicable regulations, or in the event of a fraud or misappropriation of customer assets by the FCM, the Fund could have only an unsecured creditor claim in an insolvency of the FCM with respect to the margin held by the FCM. FCMs are also required to transfer to the clearing house the amount of margin required by the clearing house, which amount is generally held in an omnibus account at the clearing house for all customers of the FCM. In addition, the Fund may enter into futures contracts and repurchase agreements with a limited number of counterparties, which may increase the Fund's exposure to counterparty credit risk. The Fund does not specifically limit its counterparty risk with respect to any single counterparty.
Further, there is a risk that no suitable counterparties are willing to enter into reverse repurchase agreements with the Fund, or continue to enter into, reverse repurchase agreement transactions with the Fund and, as a result, the Fund may not be able to achieve its investment objective. There is also the risk that the Fund may not be able to engage in reverse repurchase agreement transactions because suitable counterparties refuse to enter into transactions with the Fund. Contractual provisions and applicable law may prevent or delay the Fund from exercising its rights to terminate an investment or transaction with a financial institution experiencing financial difficulties, or to realize on collateral, and another institution may be substituted for that financial institution without the consent of the Fund. If the credit rating of a counterparty to a futures contract and/or repurchase agreement declines, the Fund may nonetheless choose or be required to keep existing transactions in place with the counterparty, in which event the Fund would be subject to any increased credit risk associated with those transactions. Also, in the event of a counterparty's (or its affiliate's) insolvency, the possibility exists that the Fund's ability to exercise remedies, such as the termination of transactions, netting of obligations and realization on collateral, could be stayed or eliminated under special resolution regimes adopted in the United States, the European Union and various other jurisdictions. Such regimes provide government authorities with broad authority to intervene when a financial institution is experiencing financial difficulty. In particular, the regulatory authorities could reduce, eliminate, or convert to equity the liabilities to the Fund of a counterparty who is subject to such proceedings in the European Union (sometimes referred to as a "bail in").
Investment Strategy Risk. The Fund, through the Subsidiary, invests primarily in Bitcoin Futures Contracts. The Fund does not invest directly in or hold bitcoin. The price of Bitcoin Futures Contracts may differ, sometimes significantly, from the current cash price of bitcoin, which is sometimes referred to as the "spot" price of bitcoin. Consequently, the Fund may perform differently from the spot price of bitcoin.
Liquidity Risk. The market for the Bitcoin Futures Contracts is still developing and may be subject to periods of illiquidity. During such times it may be difficult or impossible to buy or sell a position at the desired price. Market disruptions or volatility can also make it difficult to find a counterparty willing to transact at a reasonable price and sufficient size. Illiquid markets may cause losses, which could be significant. The large size of the positions which the Fund may acquire increases the risk of illiquidity, may make its positions more difficult to liquidate, and increase the losses incurred while trying to do so.
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Valuation Risk. The Fund or the Subsidiary may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including "fair valued" assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund or the Subsidiary could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund or the Subsidiary would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund or the Subsidiary at that time. The Fund's ability to value investments may be impacted by technological issues or errors by pricing services or other third-party service providers.
Collateral Investments Risk. The Fund's use of Collateral Investments may include obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, money market funds and corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper.
Some securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. Government-sponsored instrumentalities may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, in which case the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the security for ultimate repayment, and may not be able to assert a claim against the United States itself in the event that the agency or instrumentality does not meet its commitment. The U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities do not guarantee the market value of their securities, and consequently, the value of such securities may fluctuate. Although the Fund may hold securities that carry U.S. Government guarantees, these guarantees do not extend to shares of the Fund.
Money market funds are subject to management fees and other expenses. Therefore, investments in money market funds will cause the Fund to bear indirectly a proportional share of the fees and costs of the money market funds in which it invests. At the same time, the Fund will continue to pay its own management fees and expenses with respect to all of its assets, including any portion invested in the shares of the money market fund. It is possible to lose money by investing in money market funds.
Corporate debt securities such as commercial paper generally are short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses. Corporate debt may carry variable or floating rates of interest. Corporate debt securities carry both credit risk and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the risk that the Fund could lose money if the issuer of a corporate debt security is unable to pay interest or repay principal when it is due.
Debt Securities Risk. Investments in debt securities subject the holder to the credit risk of the issuer. Credit risk refers to the possibility that the issuer or other obligor of a security will not be able or willing to make payments of interest and principal when due. Generally, the value of debt securities will change inversely with changes in interest rates. To the extent that interest rates rise, certain underlying obligations may be paid off substantially slower than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply. During periods of falling interest rates, the income received by the Fund may decline. If the principal on a debt security is prepaid before expected, the prepayments of principal may have to be reinvested in obligations paying interest at lower rates. Debt securities generally do not trade on a securities exchange making them generally less liquid and more difficult to value than common stock.
Tax Risk. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. As a RIC, the Fund will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the portion of its net investment income and net capital gain that it distributes to Shareholders, provided that it satisfies certain requirements of the Code. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund's taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed. Additionally, buying securities shortly before the record date for a taxable dividend or capital gain distribution is commonly known as "buying the dividend." In the event a shareholder purchases Shares shortly before such a distribution, the entire distribution may be taxable to the shareholder even though a portion of the distribution effectively represents a return of the purchase price. To comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will limit its investments in the Subsidiary to 25% of the Fund's total assets at the end of each tax quarter. The investment strategy of the Fund will cause the Fund to hold substantially more than 25% of the Fund's total assets in investments in the Subsidiary the majority of the time. The Fund intends to manage the exposure to the Subsidiary so that the Fund's investments in the Subsidiary do not exceed 25% of the total assets at the end of any tax quarter. If the Fund's investments in the Subsidiary were to exceed 25% of the Fund's total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.
Because Bitcoin Futures Contracts produce non-qualifying income for purposes of qualifying as a RIC, the Fund makes its investments in Bitcoin Futures Contracts through the Subsidiary. The Fund intends to treat any income it may derive from the futures contracts received by the Subsidiary as "qualifying income" under the provisions of the Code applicable to RICs. The Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS") has issued numerous Private Letter Rulings ("PLRs") provided to third parties not associated with the Fund or its affiliates (which only those parties may rely on as precedent) concluding that similar arrangements resulted in qualifying income. Many of such PLRs have now been revoked by the IRS. In March of 2019, the Internal Revenue Service published Regulations that concluded that income from a corporation similar to the Subsidiary would be qualifying income, if the income is related to the Fund's business of investing in stocks or securities. Although the Regulations do not require distributions from the Subsidiary, the Fund intends to cause the Subsidiary to make distributions that would allow the Fund to make timely distributions to its shareholders. The Fund generally will be required to include in its own taxable income the income of the Subsidiary for a tax year, regardless of whether the Fund receives a distribution of the Subsidiary's income in that tax year, and this income would nevertheless be subject to the distribution requirement for qualification as a regulated investment company and would be taken into account for purposes of the 4% excise tax.
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If, in any year, the Fund were to fail to qualify for the special tax treatment accorded a RIC and its shareholders, and were ineligible to or were not to cure such failure, the Fund would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation subject to U.S. federal income tax on all its income at the fund level. The resulting taxes could substantially reduce the Fund's net assets and the amount of income available for distribution. In addition, in order to requalify for taxation as a RIC, the Fund could be required to recognize unrealized gains, pay substantial taxes and interest, and make certain distributions.
Subsidiary Investment Risk. Changes in the laws of the United States and/or the Cayman Islands, under which the Fund and the Subsidiary are organized, respectively, could result in the inability of the Fund to operate as intended and could negatively affect the Fund and its shareholders. The Subsidiary is not registered under the 1940 Act and is not subject to all the investor protections of the 1940 Act. However, as the Subsidiary is wholly-owned by the Fund, and the investors of the Fund will have the investor protections of the 1940 Act, the Fund as a whole-including the Subsidiary-will provide investors with 1940 protections.
Commodity Regulatory Risk. The Fund's use of commodity futures subject to regulation by the CFTC has caused the Fund to be classified as a "commodity pool" and this designation requires that the Fund comply with CFTC rules, which may impose additional regulatory requirements and compliance obligations. The Fund's investment decisions may need to be modified, and commodity contract positions held by the Fund may have to be liquidated at disadvantageous times or prices, to avoid exceeding any applicable position limits established by the CFTC, potentially subjecting the Fund to substantial losses. The regulation of commodity transactions in the United States is subject to ongoing modification by government, self-regulatory and judicial action. The effect of any future regulatory change with respect to any aspect of the Fund is impossible to predict, but could be substantial and adverse to the Fund.
Volatility Risk. Volatility is the characteristic of a security or other asset, an index or a market to fluctuate significantly in price within a short time period. The prices of bitcoin and bitcoin futures have historically been highly volatile. The value of the Fund's investments in Bitcoin Futures Contracts - and therefore the value of an investment in the Fund - could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. If you are not prepared to accept significant and unexpected changes in the value of the Fund and the possibility that you could lose your entire investment in the Fund, you should not invest in the Fund.
Asset Concentration Risk. Since the Fund may take concentrated positions in certain securities, the Fund's performance may be hurt disproportionately and significantly by the poor performance of those positions to which it has significant exposure. Asset concentration makes the Fund more susceptible to any single occurrence affecting the underlying positions and may subject the Fund to greater market risk than more diversified funds.
Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in the Fund's portfolio will decline because of rising market interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. Duration is a reasonably accurate measure of a debt security's price sensitivity to changes in interest rates and a common measure of interest rate risk. Duration measures a debt security's expected life on a present value basis, taking into account the debt security's yield, interest payments and final maturity. In general, duration represents the expected percentage change in the value of a security for an immediate 1% change in interest rates. For example, the price of a debt security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Therefore, prices of debt securities with shorter durations tend to be less sensitive to interest rate changes than debt securities with longer durations. As the value of a debt security changes over time, so will its duration.
Cash Transaction Risk. Most ETFs generally make in-kind redemptions to avoid being taxed at the fund level on gains on the distributed portfolio securities. However, unlike most ETFs, the Fund currently intends to effect some or all redemptions for cash, rather than in-kind, because of the nature of the Fund's investments. The Fund may be required to sell portfolio securities to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds, which involves transaction costs that the Fund may not have incurred had it effected redemptions entirely in kind. These costs may include brokerage costs and/or taxable gains or losses, which may be imposed on the Fund and decrease the Fund's NAV to the extent such costs are not offset by a transaction fee payable to an AP. If the Fund recognizes gain on these sales, this generally will cause the Fund to recognize gain it might not otherwise have recognized if it were to distribute portfolio securities in-kind, or to recognize such gain sooner than would otherwise be required. This may decrease the tax efficiency of the Fund compared to ETFs that utilize an in-kind redemption process, and there may be a substantial difference in the after-tax rate of return between the Fund and other ETFs.
Clearing Broker Risk. The Fund's investments in exchange-traded futures contracts expose it to the risks of a clearing broker (or a FCM). Under current regulations, a clearing broker or FCM maintains customers' assets in a bulk segregated account. There is a risk that Fund assets deposited with the clearing broker to serve as margin may be used to satisfy the broker's own obligations or the losses of the broker's other clients. In the event of default, the Fund could experience lengthy delays in recovering some or all of its assets and may not see any recovery at all. Furthermore, the Fund is subject to the risk that no FCM is willing or able to clear the Fund's transactions or maintain the Fund's assets. If the Fund's FCMs are unable or unwilling to clear the Fund's transactions, or if the FCM refuses to maintain the Fund's assets, the Fund will be unable have its orders for Bitcoin Futures Contracts fulfilled or assets custodied. In such a circumstance, the performance of the Fund will likely deviate from the performance of bitcoin and may result in the proportion of Bitcoin Futures Contracts in the Fund's portfolio relative to the total assets of the Fund to decrease.
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Investment Capacity Risk. If the Fund's ability to obtain exposure to Bitcoin Futures Contracts consistent with its investment objective is disrupted for any reason, including but not limited to, limited liquidity in the bitcoin futures market, a disruption to the bitcoin futures market, or as a result of margin requirements or position limits imposed by the Fund's FCMs, the CME, or the CFTC, and the Fund could not otherwise meet its investment objective through the use of other investments discussed above, the Fund would not be able to achieve its investment objective and may experience significant losses.
Cyber Security Risk. The Fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. A breach in cyber security refers to both intentional and unintentional events that may cause the Fund to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption or lose operational capacity. Such events could cause the Fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. Cyber security breaches may involve unauthorized access to the Fund's digital information systems through "hacking" or malicious software coding, but may also result from outside attacks such as denial-of service attacks through efforts to make network services unavailable to intended users. In addition, cyber security breaches of the Fund's third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-adviser, as applicable, or issuers in which the Fund invests, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, there are inherent limitations in such plans and systems. Additionally, there is no guarantee that such efforts will succeed, especially because the Fund does not directly control the cyber security systems of issuers or third-party service providers.
Authorized Participant Concentration Risk. Only an authorized participant ("AP") may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as APs on an agency basis (i.e. on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other AP is able to step forward to create or redeem, in either of these cases, Shares may trade at a discount to the Fund's net asset value and possibly face delisting.
Frequent Trading Risk. The Fund regularly purchases and subsequently sells (i.e., "rolls") individual futures contracts throughout the year so as to maintain a fully invested position. As the contracts near their expiration dates, the Fund rolls them over into new contracts. This frequent trading of contracts may increase the amount of commissions or mark-ups to broker-dealers that the Fund pays when it buys and sells contracts, which may detract from the Fund's performance. High portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher levels of transaction costs and may generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders. Frequent trading risk may cause the Fund's performance to be less than expected.
Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed, and its performance reflects investment decisions that the Sub-Adviser and Adviser make for the Fund. Such judgments about the Fund's investments may prove to be incorrect. If the investments selected and the strategies employed by the Fund fail to produce the intended results, the Fund could underperform as compared to other funds with similar investment objectives and/or strategies, or could have negative returns.
Active Market Risk. Although the Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained. Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices that may be below, at or above the Fund's net asset value. Securities, including the Shares, are subject to market fluctuations and liquidity constraints that may be caused by such factors as economic, political, or regulatory developments, changes in interest rates, and/or perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.
Premium/Discount Risk. The market price of the Fund's Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund's net asset value as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The Fund's market price may deviate from the value of the Fund's underlying portfolio holdings, particularly in time of market stress, with the result that investors may pay more or receive less than the underlying value of the Fund shares bought or sold. The Adviser and Sub-Adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at, or above their net asset value because the Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices and not at net asset value. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related, but not identical, to the same forces influencing the prices of the holdings of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. However, given that Shares can only be purchased and redeemed in Creation Units, and only to and from broker-dealers and large institutional investors that have entered into participation agreements (unlike shares of closed-end funds, which frequently trade at appreciable discounts from, and sometimes at premiums to, their net asset value), the Adviser and Sub-Adviser believe that large discounts or premiums to the net asset value of Shares should not be sustained. During stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund's Shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the market for the Fund's underlying portfolio holdings, which could in turn lead to differences between the market price of the Fund's Shares and their net asset value. This can be reflected as a spread between the bid and ask prices for the Fund quoted during the day or a premium or discount in the closing price from the Fund's NAV.
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Operational Risk. The Fund is exposed to operational risks arising from a number of factors, including, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund, Adviser and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Credit Risk. An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due. In addition, the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer's ability or unwillingness to make such payments.
Leverage Risk. The Fund seeks to achieve and maintain the exposure to the price of bitcoin by using leverage inherent in futures contracts. Therefore, the Fund is subject to leverage risk. When the Fund purchases or sells an instrument or enters into a transaction without investing an amount equal to the full economic exposure of the instrument or transaction, it creates leverage, which can result in the Fund losing more than it originally invested. As a result, these investments may magnify losses to the Fund, and even a small market movement may result in significant losses to the Fund. Leverage may also cause the Fund to be more volatile because it may exaggerate the effect of any increase or decrease in the value of the Fund's portfolio securities. Futures trading involves a degree of leverage and as a result, a relatively small price movement in futures instruments may result in immediate and substantial losses to the Fund. The Fund may at times be required to liquidate portfolio positions, including when it is not advantageous to do so, in order to comply with guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") regarding asset segregation requirements to cover certain leveraged positions.
Market Maker Risk. If the Fund has lower average daily trading volumes, it may rely on a small number of third-party market makers to provide a market for the purchase and sale of Shares. Any trading halt or other problem relating to the trading activity of these market makers could result in a dramatic change in the spread between the Fund's net asset value and the price at which the Shares are trading on the Exchange, which could result in a decrease in value of the Shares. In addition, decisions by market makers or APs to reduce their role or step away from these activities in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of the Fund's portfolio securities and the Fund's market price. This reduced effectiveness could result in Shares trading at a discount to net asset value and also in greater than normal intra-day bid-ask spreads for Shares.
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is classified as "non-diversified" under the 1940 Act. As a result, the Fund is only limited as to the percentage of its assets which may be invested in the securities of any one issuer by the diversification requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The Fund may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers. As a result, the Fund may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers, experience increased volatility and be highly invested in certain issuers.
Trading Issues Risk. Trading in Fund Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Fund Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange's "circuit breaker" rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. The Fund may have difficulty maintaining its listing on the Exchange in the event the Fund's assets are small, the Fund does not have enough shareholders, or if the Fund is unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders.
Reverse Repurchase Agreements Risk. The Fund may invest in reverse repurchase agreements. Reverse repurchase agreements are transactions in which the Fund sells portfolio securities to financial institutions such as banks and broker-dealers, and agrees to repurchase them at a mutually agreed-upon date and price which is higher than the original sale price. Reverse repurchase agreements are a form of leverage and the use of reverse repurchase agreements by the Fund may increase the Fund's volatility. The Fund incurs costs, including interest expenses, in connection with the opening and closing of reverse repurchase agreements that will be borne by the shareholders.
Reverse repurchase agreements are also subject to the risk that the other party to the reverse repurchase agreement will be unable or unwilling to complete the transaction as scheduled, which may result in losses to the Fund. In situations where the Fund is required to post collateral with a counterparty, the counterparty may fail to segregate the collateral or may commingle the collateral with the counterparty's own assets. As a result, in the event of the counterparty's bankruptcy or insolvency, the Fund's collateral may be subject to the conflicting claims of the counterparty's creditors, and the Fund may be exposed to the risk of a court treating the Fund as a general unsecured creditor of the counterparty, rather than as the owner of the collateral. There can be no assurance that a counterparty will not default and that the Fund will not sustain a loss on a transaction as a result.
Reverse repurchase agreements also involve the risk that the market value of the securities sold by the Fund may decline below the price at which it is obligated to repurchase the securities. In addition, when the Fund invests the proceeds it receives in a reverse repurchase transaction, there is a risk that those investments may decline in value. In this circumstance, the Fund could be required to sell other investments in order to meet its obligations to repurchase the securities.
Natural Disaster/Epidemic Risk. Natural or environmental disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis and other severe weather-related phenomena generally, and widespread disease, including pandemics and epidemics (for example, the novel coronavirus COVID- 19), have been and can be highly disruptive to economies and markets and have recently led, and may continue to lead, to increased market volatility and significant market losses. Such natural disaster and health crises could exacerbate political, social, and economic risks, and result in significant breakdowns, delays, shutdowns, social isolation, and other disruptions to important global, local and regional supply chains affected, with potential corresponding results on the operating performance of the Fund and its investments. A climate of uncertainty and panic, including the contagion of infectious viruses or diseases, may adversely affect global, regional, and local economies and reduce the availability of potential investment opportunities, and increases the difficulty of performing due diligence and modeling market conditions, potentially reducing the accuracy of financial projections. Under these circumstances, the Fund may have difficulty achieving its investment objectives which may adversely impact Fund performance. Further, such events can be highly disruptive to economies and markets, significantly disrupt the operations of individual companies (including, but not limited to, the Fund's investment advisor, third party service providers, and counterparties), sectors, industries, markets, securities and commodity exchanges, currencies, interest and inflation rates, credit ratings, investor sentiment, and other factors affecting the value of the Fund's investments. These factors can cause substantial market volatility, exchange trading suspensions and closures, changes in the availability of and the margin requirements for certain instruments, and can impact the ability of the Fund to complete redemptions and otherwise affect Fund performance and Fund trading in the secondary market. A widespread crisis would also affect the global economy in ways that cannot necessarily be foreseen. How long such events will last and whether they will continue or recur cannot be predicted. Impacts from these could have a significant impact on the Fund's performance, resulting in losses to your investment.
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The Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective.
Performance
As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has been in operation for less than one full calendar year and therefore does not report its performance information. Once available, the Fund's performance information will be accessible on the Fund's website at www.volatilityshares.com and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.
Management
Investment Adviser
Volatility Shares LLC
Investment Sub-Adviser
Penserra Capital Management LLC
Portfolio Managers
The following persons serve as portfolio managers of the Fund.
● Dustin Lewellyn, CFA - Chief Investment Officer, Penserra
● Ernesto Tong, CFA - Managing Director, Penserra
● Anand Desai - Senior Vice President, Penserra
Mr. Tong and Mr. Desai are responsible for day-to-day management of the Fund. Mr. Lewellyn is responsible for overall management and supervision of the Fund. Each of the portfolio managers has served in such capacity since the Fund's inception.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis, at NAV, only in large blocks of shares called "Creation Units." Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market through a broker-dealer at a market price. Since Shares of the Fund trade on securities exchanges in the secondary market at their market price rather than their NAV, the Fund's Shares may trade at a price greater than (premium) or less than (discount) the Fund's NAV. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares of the Fund (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares of the Fund (ask) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market (the "bid-ask spread"). Recent information, including the Fund's NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available online at www.volatilityshares.com.
Tax Information
The Fund's distributions will generally be taxable as ordinary income, returns of capital or capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.
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Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Adviser and Foreside Fund Services, LLC, the Fund's distributor (the "Distributor"), may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary's website for more information.
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