BlackRock’s proposed $BTC fund wants the moonshot with a crash barrier 🛡️

BlackRock (BLK), the world's largest asset manager, filed on Monday to propose the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protect ETF, a bitcoin-linked fund that would provide exposure to price gains while seeking to limit losses when the cryptocurrency falls. The filing did not specify how much downside protection would be offered or how much bitcoin upside investors could capture.

“The Fund seeks to provide upside exposure to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF and/or similar bitcoin exposure up to an approximate limit, while seeking to provide a level of downside protection,” BlackRock said in the filing. The proposed fund would build on the firm's flagship iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which manages more than $65 billion in assets and is the largest of the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs introduced in 2024. The New York City-based manager also introduced a bitcoin income ETF in June as it expands beyond products that track bitcoin's price.

Calamos Investments, based in Naperville, Illinois, debuted its first three protected bitcoin ETFs in early 2025, offering full downside protection or funds that limit losses to 10% or 20% over a set period. Calamos puts roughly 90% of the funds' assets into U.S. Treasuries and uses the rest to buy bitcoin-linked options. This structure allows investors to benefit when bitcoin rises, up to a set cap, while limiting losses over a defined period.

Since the start of its one-year protection period in October 2025, Calamos' Bitcoin Structured Alt Protection ETF – October (CBOO) dropped just 1%, according to a Calamos spokesperson. By contrast, bitcoin ($BTC), at $81,462.69, had lost more than 50% in the past year's selloff, falling as much as 52% from its record high of roughly $126,000.

Matt Kaufman, Calamos' head of ETFs, said in May that the protected bitcoin funds had attracted between $10 million and $15 million over several weeks.