After Bitcoin's tremendous rally to new highs around $126,000 last year, it shed essentially all of those gains in the final months of 2025 and is now down about 4% on a trailing-12-month basis. Still, with new legislation surrounding stablecoins, encouraging developments in regulation, and a host of new access points for everyday crypto users, there are plenty of reasons an investor might expect that 2026 could be a good year for the industry.
With many cryptocurrency stocks shifting their focus and repurposing their operations to cater to AI and data center demands, it is getting more difficult for investors to find ways to build Bitcoin and other crypto into their portfolios. Fortunately, a number of innovative exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are taking advantage of new opportunities in the space. Crypto enthusiasts may want to consider these alternatives, either in addition to or instead of investing directly in tokens.
A Fund-of-Funds Approach to Generating Monthly Income
The NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF (NYSEARCA: BTCI) was launched in late 2024 to generate monthly distributions by writing call options on Bitcoin futures ETFs.
As an actively managed fund focused on Bitcoin exchange-traded products, BTCI may provide investors with a layer of insulation from volatility in Bitcoin's price.
The fund should also continue to become more diversified as the Bitcoin ETF landscape continues to grow.
Given its unique approach, BTCI has a relatively modest expense ratio of 0.98%. It has also drawn a fair amount of investor interest in its short trading history, with more than $1 billion in assets under management (AUM).
Its distribution rate has been impressive recently—annualizing the fund's most recent monthly distribution and dividing it by the most recent ex-date NAV reveals a distribution rate of 27.3%. The fund has appreciation potential and has returned about 10% in the last year.
Innovative Staking Approach and Rewards for Solana Investors
As the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, Solana has become increasingly important in the crypto ecosystem, although it remains difficult for ETF investors to access.
The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (NYSEARCA: BSOL) aims to change this by being the first exchange-traded product to provide 100% direct exposure to Solana.
For investors unfamiliar with or discouraged by the process of staking, BSOL provides professionally managed staking in-house in an attempt to stake 100% of its Solana holdings. Solana is a way to participate in the cryptocurrency world while diversifying beyond the biggest names like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The gross staking reward rate—annualized based on the last 90 days and including inflation rewards and other types of benefits—is an impressive 6.74%. What may be even more attractive about BSOL is its unique approach to expense ratio.
For the first three months after launch—a period that ends Jan. 23, 2026—the expense ratio will be waived on the first $1 billion in managed assets. It is currently sitting at around $778 million in AUM, and following the three-month period, the expense ratio will be only 0.20%.
First-Ever Ether Fund Adds Distributions
The Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (NYSEARCA: ETHE) is the first-ever ETF to track the spot price of Ether, the digital asset powering the Ethereum network. It launched on the NYSEARCA in 2024 but traded on OTC Markets for several years before that.
The second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, Ether still plays a vital role in decentralized finance applications. ETHE's expense ratio of 2.5% is high, but it provides the benefit of staking some 72% of its Ether holdings, generating gross staking rewards of 4.17% in the process.
This is based on its first dividend distribution, made in the first days of 2026, of $0.083178 per share. Investors may expect this to continue and even grow going forward, providing an added bonus on top of the potential the fund has to grow alongside the price of Ether.
With a one-month trading volume that averages about 6.7 million and more than $3 billion in AUM, ETHE should prove to be sufficiently liquid for investors looking to take a more active trading approach alongside those using this as a buy-and-hold option.
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The article "3 Innovative Crypto ETFs That May Surprise in 2026" first appeared on MarketBeat.
