Company: HODL
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000930413-25-000995
Chunk: 170

Company: VanEck Bitcoin ETF
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 170
---
Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Risks Associated with Bitcoin and the Bitcoin
Network

The trading prices of many digital assets, including bitcoin,
have experienced extreme volatility in recent periods and may continue to do so. Extreme volatility in the future, including further
declines in the trading prices of bitcoin, could have a material adverse effect on the value of the Shares and the Shares could
lose all or substantially all of their value.

The trading prices of many digital assets, including
bitcoin, have experienced extreme volatility in recent periods and may continue to do so. For instance, there were steep increases
in the value of certain digital assets, including bitcoin, over the course of 2021, and multiple market observers asserted that
digital assets were experiencing a “bubble.” These increases were followed by steep drawdowns throughout 2022 in digital
asset trading prices, including for bitcoin. These episodes of rapid price appreciation followed by steep drawdowns have occurred
multiple times throughout bitcoin’s history, including in 2011, 2013-2014, and 2017-2018, before repeating again in 2021-2022.
Over the course of 2023 and 2024, bitcoin prices continued to exhibit extreme volatility.

Extreme volatility may persist and the value
of the Shares may significantly decline in the future without recovery. The digital asset markets may be experiencing a bubble
or may experience a bubble again in the future. For example, in the first half of 2022, each of Celsius Network, Voyager Digital
Ltd., and Three Arrows Capital declared bankruptcy, resulting in a loss of confidence in participants of the digital asset ecosystem
and negative publicity surrounding digital assets more broadly. In November 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”), one of
the largest digital asset exchanges by volume at the time, halted customer withdrawals amid rumors of the company’s liquidity
issues and likely insolvency, which were subsequently corroborated by its CEO. Shortly thereafter, FTX’s CEO resigned and
FTX and many of its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the United States, while other affiliates have entered insolvency, liquidation,
or similar proceedings around the globe, following which the U.S. Department of Justice brought criminal fraud and other charges,
and the SEC and CFTC brought civil securities and commodities fraud charges, against certain of FTX’s and its affiliates’
senior executives, including its former CEO. In addition, several other entities in the digital asset industry filed for bankruptcy
following