Company: HODL
Filing Date: 2025-11-13
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0000930413-25-003438
Chunk: 152

Company: VanEck Bitcoin ETF
Filing Date: 2025-11-13
Form: 10-Q
Item: Part I, Item 4
Chunk 152
---
 improper behavior.

In 2019 there were reports claiming that 80.95% of bitcoin trading volume
on digital asset trading platforms was false or noneconomic in nature, with specific focus on unregulated exchanges located outside
of the United States. Such reports alleged that certain overseas trading platforms have displayed suspicious trading activity suggestive
of a variety of manipulative or fraudulent practices, such as fake or artificial trading volume or trading volume based on non-economic
“wash trading” (where offsetting trades are entered into for other than bona fide reasons, such as the desire to inflate
reported trading volumes), and attributed such manipulative or fraudulent behavior to motives like the incentive to attract listing
fees from token issuers who seek the most liquid and high-volume platforms on which to list their coins.

Other academics and market observers have put forth evidence to support
claims that manipulative trading activity has occurred on certain bitcoin trading platforms. For example, in a 2017 paper titled
“Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem” sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv
University, a group of researchers used publicly available trading data, as well as leaked transaction data from a 2014 Mt. Gox
security breach, to identify and analyze the impact of “suspicious trading activity” on Mt. Gox between February and
November 2013, which, according to the authors, caused the price of bitcoin to increase from around $150 to more than $1,000 over
a two-month period.

The potential consequences of a digital asset trading platform failure
or failure to prevent market manipulation could adversely affect the value of the Shares. Manipulative trading or market abuse
could create artificial or distorted prices, cause a loss of investor

17

confidence in bitcoin, adversely impact pricing trends in bitcoin markets
broadly, and cause losses from an investment in Shares of the Trust.

If a Liquidity Provider Agreement, the Custody Agreement, the Additional
Bitcoin Custody Agreement, an Authorized Participant Agreement or Clearing Agreement is terminated or a Liquidity Provider, an
Authorized Participant, the Bitcoin Custodian or the Additional Bitcoin Custodian fails to participate in the creation or redemption
processes of the Trust or fails to provide services as required, the Sponsor may need to find and appoint a replacement Liquidity
Provider, Authorized Participant, Bitcoin Custodian or Additional Bitcoin Custodian quickly, which could pose a challenge to the
Trust’s ability to create and redeem Shares or the safekeeping of the