CoinShares’ Valkyrie Bitcoin Mining (WGMI) exchange-traded fund (ETF) has garnered attention for its disappointing performance this year, currently standing as the worst-performing ETF of 2025, with a significant year-to-date decline of 43%. Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas has highlighted the challenges faced by this investment vehicle, which primarily consists of publicly traded bitcoin (BTC) miners.
The ETF’s largest holding, IREN (IREN), accounts for 15% of the portfolio and has suffered a downturn of 42%. The second largest, Core Scientific (CORZ), represents 14% with an alarming 48% drop in value. Meanwhile, Cipher Mining (CIFR), which makes up 9.6% of the fund, has plummeted by 52%. Even tech giant NVIDIA (NVDA), included as the sixth-largest holding at 5%, has seen its stock decline by over 20% this year.
According to its defined investment strategy, the ETF focuses on companies that generate at least 50% of their revenue from bitcoin mining operations or from providing essential services such as specialized chips and hardware to these companies. Currently, WGMI encompasses a total of 21 holdings and manages assets worth $147.2 million.
In stark contrast, metals ETFs have emerged as the top performers of 2025. As reported by justETF, several gold mining ETFs are positioned in the top five, with the Equity World Basic Materials DAXglobal Gold Miners ETF leading the pack by recording a remarkable 38% growth year-to-date.
The significant struggles of bitcoin miners this year can be attributed to a rapidly increasing network hash rate, which reflects the computational power required for mining. Currently hovering near all-time highs around 832 EH/s, this surge has exacerbated the disconnect between bitcoin’s market price and mining capability.
Consequently, mining difficulty levels are also nearing peak conditions, making it increasingly challenging for miners to acquire new bitcoins. Alongside this, current transaction fees remain exceptionally low, further constraining miner profitability as the rewards for processing transactions have diminished significantly.
