Hashdex Asset Management announced on August 3, 2026 that it will close and liquidate its Hashdex Bitcoin ETF, ticker DEFI, after the fund’s assets fell to approximately $14.7 million, with trading on NYSE Arca ending after the close of business on August 17.
The Timeline Holders Need to Know
Shareholders can sell their shares on NYSE Arca through the close of business on August 17, the fund’s last trading day, after which the fund will stop accepting new creation orders and the shares will be delisted.
Holders who still own shares at that point don’t need to take any action to receive a payout, since the fund will sell its remaining Bitcoin holdings and distribute the proceeds automatically as a cash liquidating distribution equal to the shares’ net asset value on the liquidation date.
Hashdex’s official press release states the cash distribution is currently expected on or about August 28, and that date is the company’s own stated figure for planning purposes.
However, earlier-filed documents, including the liquidation plan itself and an initial 8-K, had pointed to August 24 instead, and Hashdex’s own August 3 filing acknowledges dates may still change.
Once trading on NYSE Arca ceases, there’s no confirmed secondary market for the shares during the wind-down period, meaning holders who miss the last trading day rely entirely on the fund’s own liquidation process.
What Determines Your Payout
The final cash amount depends on more than just Bitcoin’s price on a single day.
The distribution reflects the fund’s net asset value after accounting for liabilities, transaction costs, and the specific costs of selling its Bitcoin holdings, with Hashdex explicitly warning that Bitcoin’s price could move substantially during the liquidation window itself, in either direction, between the last trading day and the actual distribution.
The sponsor has agreed to cover the remaining liquidation expenses beyond what’s already factored into the payout.
For US federal income tax purposes, Hashdex is treating the cash distribution as a liquidating distribution from a partnership, though the specific tax outcome depends on each holder’s own circumstances, and the company has urged investors to consult their own tax advisers rather than assume a uniform treatment.
Why Hashdex Is Closing the Fund
Hashdex said it evaluated the fund against several factors before deciding to liquidate, including assets under management, trading liquidity, operating costs, investor interest, and how DEFI fit within its broader product lineup.
The company has described this evaluation as an ongoing, continuous process applied across its entire fund lineup rather than a one-time review triggered specifically by DEFI’s circumstances, meaning other smaller funds could face similar scrutiny in the future if their own metrics move in the same direction.
The fund’s own prospectus had previously warned that operating costs could become unreasonable below $20 million in assets, and DEFI’s $14.7 million as of July 30 sat well under that threshold.
Based on the fund’s stated 0.25% annual management fee, that asset base would generate roughly $36,750 per year in gross management fees if holdings stayed flat, a gap that CryptoSlate has calculated as part of its explanation of the fund’s cost pressure.
Hashdex emphasized this is a fund-specific decision tied to DEFI’s own scale, noting it continues to manage more than $200 million across other US-available products.
How DEFI Got Here
DEFI originally traded as a Bitcoin futures ETF before Hashdex converted it into a spot Bitcoin ETF in 2024, following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) landmark approval of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs that January, collectively referred to as the “Newborn Nine.”
At the time of that conversion, the fund held roughly 5,500 Bitcoin and separately sought approval for a combined Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, though the SEC delayed its decision on that proposal in August 2024.
DEFI’s closure highlights a broader dynamic in the spot Bitcoin ETF market, where a handful of large funds have attracted the overwhelming majority of assets while smaller entrants have struggled to reach a sustainable scale.
For more on how spot Bitcoin ETFs work and what investors should weigh before holding one, our guide on five things Bitcoin ETF investors should know covers the fundamentals.
What Comes Next
What this means for you: if you hold Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF, selling on the open market before August 17 gives you a known, current price, while holding through the liquidation gives you a payout tied to Bitcoin’s price and transaction costs at a later, less predictable point, with the specific date itself still not entirely settled.
Neither choice is inherently better, but they carry meaningfully different levels of certainty, and that trade-off is worth weighing deliberately rather than defaulting to the wind-down simply by not acting before the deadline.
