IBIT vs FBTC vs GBTC: Which Bitcoin ETF Costs You the Least?

IBIT, FBTC and GBTC are the three biggest ways to own bitcoin through a normal brokerage account in the US. Each one holds bitcoin and nothing else. Each share stands for a small, fixed slice of the fund's bitcoin.

So the only real difference is what each fund charges you to hold it. We put $10,000 in each at the close on 11 January 2024, the first day all three traded as ETFs, and checked the result at the close on 23 October 2026.

IBIT vs FBTC vs GBTC at a glance

IBIT is the giant, holding about 811,000 bitcoin. But size doesn't change what you own. One share of any of them is just a slice of bitcoin. The row that matters is the fee: $25 a year on $10,000 for IBIT or FBTC, $150 for GBTC.

The bitcoin-per-share row looks different for each fund, but that tells you nothing about value. It mostly reflects the share price each fund started at.

What $10,000 became in each

FBTC finished $14 ahead of IBIT, which is nothing. GBTC finished $212 behind IBIT. For comparison, $10,000 of bitcoin itself, bought at 4pm New York on the same day, was worth $17,539.

FBTC and IBIT never drifted more than $47 apart. GBTC is the interesting line. It jumped ahead in its first weeks and was $361 ahead by 8 March 2024. Then it slid back, week after week. The week of 7 November 2025 was the last time it was still ahead.

Why GBTC started ahead, and why it fell behind

GBTC isn't new. Grayscale ran it as a trust from 2013, and for years you couldn't swap its shares for the bitcoin behind them. So its price drifted away from its bitcoin, often well below it. When it became an ETF in January 2024, big traders could finally hand shares back to the fund at their full value, and that gap closed.

That's the head start in the chart. GBTC's share price gained on the bitcoin it held in its first weeks. Grayscale's own figures show it: from its ETF listing to 30 September 2026, GBTC's share price rose 76.37%, while the bitcoin behind each share, after fees, rose 73.56%.

A head start like that only happens once. The fee keeps coming every day. From the end of 2024 to October 2026, GBTC lost about 1.27% a year to IBIT. That's almost exactly the gap between their fees, 1.5% against 0.25%.

Year by year

In 2024, GBTC beat IBIT and FBTC thanks to its head start. FBTC also edged IBIT that year. Fidelity charged nothing until 31 July 2024, while IBIT charged a cut-price 0.12% on its first $5bn for its first year.

In 2025 and 2026 there was no head start left. GBTC came last both times, by about a percentage point a year. That's the fee.

The fee is paid in bitcoin

None of these funds sends you a bill. Each day, the fund sells a tiny bit of its bitcoin to pay its fee. So the bitcoin behind each of your shares shrinks a little every day, whether the price goes up or down.

In one year that's hard to see. Over ten it isn't. At 0.25% a year you keep 97.53% of your bitcoin after ten years. At 1.5% you keep 86.07%.

Put it in dollars. Say you hold $10,000 of bitcoin for ten years and the price ends where it started. IBIT or FBTC takes about $247. GBTC takes about $1,393. That's $1,146 more for exactly the same bitcoin.

IBIT vs FBTC: is there any difference?

Barely. They charge the same fee, hold the same thing and track each other to within a few dollars on $10,000. Three small differences:

• Fidelity holds FBTC's bitcoin itself, through Fidelity Digital Assets. IBIT pays an outside firm, Coinbase Custody, to hold it.
• IBIT is much bigger, more than 4 times FBTC's size, so it trades more. Its median spread between the buy and sell price was 0.02%, against 0.03% for FBTC. On $10,000 that's a few dollars at most.
• If you already have a Fidelity account, FBTC is right there. If you're anywhere else, IBIT is on almost every US broker.

GBTC's cheaper sibling: BTC

On 31 July 2024, Grayscale launched the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF, ticker BTC. It's the same idea as GBTC at 0.15% a year, cheaper than IBIT and FBTC. It held about 63,130 bitcoin on the study date.

So why is so much money still in GBTC at 1.5%? Mostly because selling can cost more than staying. A US holder who bought GBTC cheap years ago would owe tax on the gain if they sold to switch. If that's you, work out the tax bill before you move. If it isn't, there's no reason to buy GBTC new.

The risks

• The big one is bitcoin itself. $10,000 put into IBIT on day one was worth $26,771 at its high on 6 October 2025, and $12,501 on 30 June 2026. That's a fall of more than half in under nine months. A low fee doesn't protect you from that.
• The ETFs trade only when the US stock market is open. Bitcoin trades all weekend. If bitcoin drops on a Saturday, you can't sell until Monday.
• You don't hold the bitcoin yourself. You can't move it to a wallet or spend it. In return, you don't have to worry about losing a password.
• A share can trade a little above or below the value of its bitcoin. For these three it's usually a few hundredths of a percent. Use a limit order anyway.

How these funds are taxed depends on your country and the account you hold them in. Check yours before you buy.

Outside the US

These are US-listed funds. In the UK and the EU, most brokers won't sell them to private investors, because they don't publish the key information document those rules require. The local version is a bitcoin ETP or ETN listed in London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Zurich. It works the same way: it holds bitcoin and charges a yearly fee, so compare those fees exactly as you would here.

So which one?

• You want the cheapest of the big three: IBIT or FBTC, both 0.25%. Flip a coin.
• You want the cheapest of all: Grayscale's BTC, at 0.15%.
• You already have a Fidelity account: FBTC.
• You want the biggest, most traded fund: IBIT.
• You already own GBTC: switching saves $125 a year on every $10,000. Only switch if selling won't land you a tax bill bigger than a few years of that.
• You want to hold bitcoin yourself: skip the ETFs and buy it on an exchange. Our guide to the cheapest exchanges for a first buy is linked below.