T. Rowe Price’s Crypto ETF Put 38% in Bitcoin and Returned 33.8% in Its First 11 Weeks

The T. Rowe Price crypto ETF has filed its first quarterly report, and it shows a traditional asset manager putting Bitcoin at the center of its first crypto fund.

The T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF, which trades on NYSE Arca under the ticker TKNZ, held 116 BTC worth $9.70 million on Sept. 30, 2026. That was 38.16% of the fund’s $25.42 million in net assets, more than double its next largest position, according to the Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The fund also reported a 33.8% total return from its July 16 launch through Sept. 30, as its net asset value rose from $25.00 to $33.45 per share.

A Diversified Crypto Fund That Still Leans on Bitcoin

TKNZ is actively managed and aims to beat the FTSE Crypto US Listed Index without copying it. Under normal conditions it expects to hold between five and 15 crypto assets, chosen through what the filing calls a fundamentally informed, model-based process that weighs fundamentals, valuation and momentum.

At the end of September it owned 10. Behind Bitcoin came Ethereum at 17.14%, then BNB at 9.30%, Solana at 9.12% and XRP at 9.01%. Zcash, Hyperliquid, Stellar, Cardano and Dogecoin made up the rest, each below 6%.

We think the weighting is the most telling part of the report. A team free to buy almost any eligible token, with 17 others on its approved list, still chose to make Bitcoin its largest bet by a wide margin.

That matches a pattern we have tracked across the market. Our look at Bitcoin dominance crossing 60% showed the same preference for BTC playing out in market capitalization.

Every Holding Finished the Quarter in Profit

According to the filing, all of the fund’s crypto holdings were above their cost on Sept. 30. Together they were worth $25.43 million against a cost of $19.72 million, an unrealized gain of $5.71 million.

Bitcoin produced the largest share of that. The fund’s 116 BTC cost $7.68 million and were valued at $9.70 million, a gain of $2.02 million, or 26.3%. That is about 35% of the fund’s total unrealized gain coming from one asset.

Some smaller positions rose faster in percentage terms. Solana was 50.5% above cost and Ethereum 38.4%. But Bitcoin’s size meant it did the most for investors in dollar terms, and the fund said gains on BTC, ETH, SOL, BNB and XRP together accounted for about $5.02 million of the total.

Trading was light. The fund booked a net realized gain of $209,000, mainly from sales of Solana, Ethereum, BNB and Hyperliquid. That was partly offset by about $92,000 of realized losses on Stellar, Chainlink, XRP and Bitcoin.

T. Rowe Price Put Up Most of the Money Itself

The filing also shows how the fund was funded. On April 1, T. Rowe Price’s sponsor company and its main investment adviser bought 800 seed shares at $25 each. On July 14, two days before trading began, they bought another 599,200 shares, bringing their total seed investment to $15 million for 600,000 shares.

By Sept. 30, shares outstanding had grown to 760,000. Total share issuance through the period came to $19.53 million, which means outside buyers had added roughly $4.5 million by the end of the quarter.

A $15 million commitment of the firm’s own capital is a strong signal of long-term intent.

It also fits a wider shift among traditional institutions. In third-quarter filings we found that Barclays rebuilt its IBIT stake while Citi opened a new FBTC position, a sign that big banks and asset managers are still adding Bitcoin exposure.

Fees, Custody and the Fine Print

TKNZ charges a management fee of 0.90% a year. T. Rowe Price has agreed to waive 0.15% of that until May 31, 2027, bringing the net fee to 0.75%.

Anchorage Digital Bank holds the fund’s crypto, and State Street holds its cash. The fund does not use leverage or derivatives, and it says it will not invest in any asset considered a security under federal law. USDC is the only stablecoin it may hold.

The SEC approved in-kind creations and redemptions for the fund on June 12, 2026, but the filing says TKNZ does not currently use them and handles orders in cash.

Investors should remember that these figures are a snapshot. The fund’s NAV moved between $23.82 and $34.53 per share during the quarter, and crypto prices have changed since Sept. 30. Based on the fund’s own figures, its Bitcoin was valued at roughly $83,600 per coin at quarter end, compared with about $74,300 late on Nov. 11, according to CoinGecko.

Why This Report Matters for Bitcoin

TKNZ is small next to the spot Bitcoin ETFs we covered in our latest Bitcoin ETF flows analysis. Its importance is not its size but who is behind it.

Given wide freedom to choose, T. Rowe Price’s managers gave a clear first answer. Bitcoin got nearly four of every ten dollars and delivered the largest dollar gain.

Multi-asset funds like this one are growing, including products tied to newer tokens such as the Grayscale Zcash ETF. But the TKNZ filing suggests that even in a diversified basket, Bitcoin is still treated as the anchor.

The next quarterly report will show whether the managers kept that weighting through October and November’s pullback. For now, the first set of numbers is a vote of confidence in Bitcoin from one of Wall Street’s most traditional names.