BlackRock files for Bitcoin ETF holding options and fixed-income securities instead of Bitcoin

BlackRock filed with the SEC for the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF (PBIT), a fund that would hold options and fixed-income securities to gain Bitcoin exposure through derivatives rather than holding Bitcoin directly. The preliminary prospectus explicitly excludes direct Bitcoin and spot Bitcoin ETP holdings. The fund structure uses staggered call-spread tranches, with each tranche buying near-90% strike calls and selling higher-strike calls to cap gains. Fixed-income holdings supply income and some loss mitigation. A hypothetical $1 billion fund with a net delta of 0.40 would create approximately $400 million in hedge-equivalent exposure for dealers, potentially influencing roughly 610 BTC of spot market activity if hedged through IBIT.