You Bought a Bitcoin ETF. You Cannot Send Those Coins.
IBIT shares are a claim on a bitcoin trust held at a custodian. Ordinary investors cannot redeem them for coins they can send.
You Bought a Bitcoin ETF. You Cannot Send Those Coins.
A brokerage purchase of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded product is a share in a trust. It is not bitcoin in a personal wallet, and it is not a coin you can send on the Bitcoin network.
This article uses the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, ticker IBIT on NASDAQ, as a documented example. The trust's prospectus dated July 31, 2025 describes the structure. Other spot bitcoin products exist. This is not a ranking of them.
What you actually hold
IBIT shares are fractional undivided beneficial interests in the net assets of a Delaware statutory trust. The trust's assets consist primarily of bitcoin held by a custodian on behalf of the trust, not by the shareholder.
The prospectus names iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC as sponsor, BlackRock Fund Advisors as trustee, and Wilmington Trust, National Association as Delaware trustee. Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC is the bitcoin custodian. Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. is listed as an available additional bitcoin custodian. The Bank of New York Mellon is the cash custodian and administrator.
The trust seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of bitcoin before payment of expenses and liabilities. The shares are not interests in or obligations of the sponsor, the trustees, the custodians, or their affiliates. The prospectus states the shares are not insured or guaranteed by the FDIC or any other governmental agency.
Who can redeem shares for bitcoin
Ordinary shareholders sell IBIT on NASDAQ. They do not present shares to the trust and receive bitcoin.
The trust issues and redeems shares only in blocks of 40,000 shares, or integral multiples of that block. That block is called a Basket. Only Authorized Participants, meaning registered broker-dealers that have a contract with the sponsor and trustee, may purchase or redeem Baskets.
The prospectus is direct: except when aggregated in Baskets, shares are not redeemable securities. Baskets are only redeemable by Authorized Participants.
How this differs from a bitcoin wallet
Bitcoin.org explains that control of private keys is how a person spends bitcoin, and that confirmed bitcoin payments are generally not reversible. A wallet you control can send coins on the Bitcoin network because it can sign with those keys.
An IBIT share does not come with those keys. The bitcoin sits with the trust's custodians. You cannot send it to an address, pay a merchant, or move it to self-custody by exporting a recovery phrase from the brokerage position.
A Sept. 9, 2024 staff bulletin from the SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy says spot bitcoin ETPs seek to provide exchange-traded exposure without direct investment in the asset. The bulletin is a staff view. It is not a Commission rule. It also notes that the ETP itself remains subject to risks in the underlying bitcoin market.
Fees, tracking, and the ETF label
The iShares product page restates a sponsor fee of 0.25% as stated in the prospectus. The staff bulletin explains that because these trusts do not generate income, paying the sponsor fee typically reduces the amount of crypto assets represented by each share over time.
Share prices can differ from the bitcoin price. The prospectus and the staff bulletin both treat IBIT-style products as exchange-traded commodity trusts. They are not investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, so they are not subject to that law's valuation and custody requirements that apply to registered ETFs and mutual funds. The name or a headline may still say ETF.
The prospectus also states the trust is not a commodity pool for purposes of the Commodity Exchange Act.
What remains unknown
This article does not inspect Coinbase Custody's or Anchorage's private controls, insurance, or incident history. A custody failure at the trust level is a different problem from losing a personal recovery phrase, and the public prospectus is not a guarantee against it.
How far IBIT's market price will sit from bitcoin on any given day is not a figure this article can fix. Creation and redemption rules, custodians, and fees can change in later filings.
Tax treatment of trust shares can differ from holding bitcoin directly. That difference is not covered here.
What to check next
Read the current prospectus and the latest periodic SEC report for IBIT before treating any of these details as still in force. Confirm the live sponsor fee, basket size, and custodian names on the filing, not on a social post.
If the question is whether you can send bitcoin, the check is simple. An IBIT position in a brokerage account is a share. A wallet you control is a separate setup with its own risks.
Disclosure: This article explains how IBIT shares are described in the July 31, 2025 prospectus and a Sept. 9, 2024 SEC staff investor bulletin. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell IBIT or bitcoin, and it does not cover every bitcoin exchange-traded product. The featured illustration was generated for CryptoWorkPro and is not a photograph of a brokerage, wallet, or BlackRock office. This article is not financial, legal, or investment advice. AI-assisted research and writing. Cited sources, not AI alone, support the claims.