From cointelegraph by Alex O'Donnell

VanEck is extending the fee waiver for VanEck Bitcoin ETF (HODL) in a bid to woo investors in the competitive Bitcoin BTC$93,215 exchange-traded fund (ETF) marketplace, according to a Nov. 25 announcement.

The asset manager has waived management fees on the spot BTC ETF’s first $2.5 billion in net assets until Jan. 10, 2026, VanEck said.

The fee waiver was previously set to expire in March 2025 and only applied to the ETF’s first $1.5 billion in assets under management (AUM), according to VanEck.

VanEck’s HODL ETF “is approaching the original $1.5B threshold we had put in place, amid investor enthusiasm for Bitcoin’s outlook,” Kyle DaCruz, VanEck’s director of digital assets products, in a statement.

He added that VanEck hopes this fee waiver extension will encourage “investors to explore the potential of Bitcoin and digital assets exposure in their portfolios.”

Related: Fee war breaks out among spot Ether ETF issuers ahead of listings

The VanEck Bitcoin ETF’s baseline management fee is 0.20%. That is competitive, although higher than fees charged by some rivals. Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC) charges lower annual sponsor fees of 0.15%.

Virtually all of the BTC and Ether ETH$3,426.58 ETFs listed in 2025 initially waived at least a portion of management fees.

Typically, cryptocurrency ETF sponsors set fee waivers to expire within six months to one year of a fund’s launch date.

VanEck Bitcoin ETF has net assets of approximately $1.28 billion, according to the ETF’s website.

This puts VanEck behind some half a dozen competing spot BTC funds. The largest, iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), has amassed some $46 billion in AUM, according to BlackRock’s website.

Bitcoin has dominated the ETF landscape since spot BTC ETFs launched in January. Investor interest accelerated after crypto-friendly President-elect Donald Trump prevailed on Nov. 5 in the US elections.