Bitwise Wraps AVAX in an ETF Bow—Now Serving 5.4% Staking Yields on the Side

AVAX, the native token of the Avalanche network, surged over 2% on Wednesday to trade at $9.53. The move came as the broader crypto market caught a bid following reports of a US-Iran "in-principle agreement" to extend their two-week ceasefire. But AVAX got an extra boost from something more specific to its ecosystem: the official debut of the Bitwise Spot Avalanche ETF, BAVA.

Bitwise Asset Management dropped the new ETF on the NYSE under ticker BAVA, giving investors direct exposure to the Avalanche blockchain. The fund holds $AVAX tokens and uses Bitwise's own on-chain operations to collateralize its assets. The structure lets the fund capture the network's average 5.4% staking yields without locking up assets needed for daily liquidity.

"When we tokenized our funds, we chose Avalanche because it enables us to build our own private, secure lane on the internet," said Anthony Scaramucci, Founder of SkyBridge. "It was like moving from old-school paper mail to an instant, secure messaging app—it made things faster, cheaper, and way more transparent for our investors."

The product comes with the standard crypto ETF disclaimer fine print: markets are volatile, and investors could lose most or all of their capital.

BAVA operates outside the 1940 Act, which means it sidesteps several regulatory requirements and investor protections that come with traditional ETFs. The sponsor fee sits at 0.34% annually, with a waiver on the first $500 million in assets during the opening month.

Bitwise, with $11 billion in client assets as of April 1, 2025, is expanding its crypto lineup with this listing. The fund offers a regulated exposure channel combining token ownership with an active staking approach.

On the charts, AVAX has climbed 13% over the past two weeks, recovering from a low of $8.37 to its current trading level around $9.45. The uptrend emerged from the support trendline of a daily chart pattern. Following a sharp decline in late January and early February, the price is now consolidating within two ascending trendlines.

With today's uptick, the altcoin is positioned to reclaim its near-term exponential moving averages at the 20 and