Bitcoin Investment Risks. The Fund’s indirect investment in bitcoin exposes it to the unique risks of this emerging innovation. Bitcoin’s price is highly volatile, and its market is influenced by the changing bitcoin network, fluctuating acceptance levels, and unpredictable usage trends. Not being a legal tender and operating outside central authority systems like banks, bitcoin faces potential government restrictions. For instance, some countries may limit or ban bitcoin transactions, negatively impacting its market value.

The risks associated with bitcoin include the possibility of fraud, theft, market manipulation, and security breaches in trading platforms. A small group of large bitcoin holders, known as “whales,” can significantly influence bitcoin’s price and may have the ability to manipulate the price. The largely unregulated nature of bitcoin and its trading venues heightens risks of fraudulent activities and market manipulation, which could affect bitcoin’s price. For example, if a group of miners gains control over a majority of the bitcoin network, they could manipulate transactions to their advantage. Historical instances have seen bitcoin trading venues shut down due to fraud or security breaches, often leaving investors without recourse and facing significant losses.

Updates to bitcoin’s software, proposed by developers, can lead to the creation of new digital assets, or “forks,” if not broadly adopted. This can impact bitcoin’s demand and the Fund’s performance. The extreme volatility of bitcoin’s market price can result in shareholder losses. Furthermore, the operation of bitcoin trading platforms may be disrupted or cease altogether due to various issues, further affecting bitcoin’s price and the Fund’s investments.

The value of bitcoin has historically been subject to significant speculation, making trading and investing in bitcoin reliant on market sentiment rather than traditional fundamental analysis.

Bitcoin’s price can be influenced by events unrelated to its security or utility, including instability in other speculative areas of the crypto/blockchain space, potentially leading to substantial declines in its value.

Risks associated with crypto asset trading platforms include fragmentation, regulatory non-compliance, and the possibility of enforcement actions by regulatory authorities.

The security of the Bitcoin Blockchain may be compromised if a single miner or group controls more than 50% of the network’s hashing power, where hashing power refers to the computational capacity used to validate and secure transactions on the blockchain.

Proposed changes to the bitcoin protocol may not be universally adopted, leading to the creation of competing blockchains (forks) with different assets and participants, exemplified by past forks like Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.

The Bitcoin Blockchain protocol may contain vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit to disrupt its operation, potentially compromising the security and reliability of the network.

Emerging alternative public blockchains, particularly those emphasizing privacy through technologies like zero-knowledge cryptography, pose risks and challenges to the dominance of the Bitcoin Blockchain as a payment system.

Common impediments to adopting the Bitcoin Blockchain as a payment network include slow transaction processing, variability in transaction fees, and the volatility of bitcoin’s price, which may deter widespread adoption by businesses and consumers.

The development and use of “Layer II solutions” are critical for the scalability and functionality of the Bitcoin Blockchain, but they also introduce risks such as off-chain transaction execution, which could affect transparency and security. Layer II solutions are off-chain protocols that improve scalability and reduce transaction costs by processing transactions outside the main blockchain network.

Adoption and use of other blockchains supporting advanced applications like smart contracts present challenges to the dominance of the Bitcoin Blockchain, potentially impacting its long-term relevance and utility in the evolving landscape of blockchain technology.

Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in securities or other instruments of non-U.S. issuers involve certain risks not involved in domestic investments and may experience more rapid and extreme changes in value than investments in securities of U.S. companies. Financial markets in foreign countries often are not as developed, efficient, or liquid as financial markets in the United States, and therefore, the prices of non-U.S. securities and instruments can be more volatile. In addition, the Fund will be subject to risks associated with adverse political and economic developments in foreign countries, which may include the imposition of economic sanctions. Generally, there is less readily available and reliable information about non-U.S. issuers due to less rigorous disclosure or accounting standards and regulatory practices.

Gold Investment Risks. The Fund’s indirect exposure to gold will subject it to significant risk due to the inherent volatility and unpredictability of the commodities markets. The value of these investments is typically derived from the price movements of physical gold or related economic variables. Price fluctuations in gold linked instruments can be swift and substantial, often showing a low correlation with the returns of traditional equity and bond markets and may not align with trends in other asset classes.

Numerous factors can influence the price of gold and gold futures contracts, including overall market movements, interest rate changes, and variations in global supply and demand. Additionally, the volume of gold imports and exports, production factors such as weather conditions, and technological advances in gold processing and mining can significantly impact gold and gold futures prices. Increased hedging activities, economic conditions, regulatory developments, and political stability also play crucial roles. Furthermore, global supply and demand dynamics, political and economic events, inflation expectations, currency exchange rates, and investment activities of hedge funds and commodity funds can all affect gold prices. Sharp fluctuations in gold markets may result in potential losses. In addition, gold markets have experienced extended periods of flat or declining prices. Investors should also be aware that while gold is often used to preserve wealth, there is no assurance that it will maintain its long-term value in terms of purchasing power.

Fixed Income Securities Risk. The Fund’s assets may include exposure to fixed income securities. The prices of fixed income securities respond to economic developments, particularly interest rate changes, as well as to changes in an issuer’s credit rating or market perceptions about the creditworthiness of an issuer. In general, the market price of fixed income securities with longer maturities will increase or decrease more in response to changes in interest rates than shorter-term securities. Changes in government intervention may have adverse effects on investments, volatility, and illiquidity in debt markets. These changes could cause the Fund’s net asset value to fluctuate or make it more difficult for the Fund to accurately value its securities. How specific fixed income securities may react to changes in interest rates will depend on the specific characteristics of each security.

Underlying Fund Risks.

Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying asset, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of the underlying asset. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly move with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate as the underlying asset. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in the values of options contracts and the underlying asset, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. The Fund may also write call options, which includes the risk that the underlying asset appreciates sufficiently over the period to offset the net premium received by the Fund for the written option, resulting in a loss to the Fund.

Market Capitalization Risk. 

Models and Data Risk. The composition of the Fund’s portfolio is heavily dependent on investment models developed by the Sub-Adviser as well as information and data supplied by third parties (“Models and Data”). When Models and Data prove to be incorrect or incomplete, any decisions made in reliance thereon may lead to the inclusion or exclusion of securities from the Fund’s portfolio that would have been excluded or included had the Models and Data been correct and complete. Errors in programming, data entry, system compatibility, or database integrity can result in the unintended inclusion or exclusion of securities in the Fund’s portfolio. Such errors, whether due to human or technological factors, could induce the Sub-Adviser to make investment choices that would not have been made with accurate and complete information, potentially leading to losses or missed gains for the Fund.

Tax Risk. The Fund intends to treat any income received by the Subsidiary as “qualifying income” under the provisions of the Code applicable to RICs. The IRS has issued numerous private letter rulings (“PLRs”) provided to third parties not associated with the Fund or its affiliates (which only those parties may rely on as precedent) concluding that similar arrangements resulted in qualifying income. Many of such PLRs have now been revoked by the IRS. In March of 2019, the IRS published Regulations that concluded that income from a corporation similar to the Subsidiary would be qualifying income. Although the Regulations do not require distributions from the Subsidiary, the Fund intends to cause the Subsidiary to make distributions that would allow the Fund to make timely distributions to its shareholders and to meet the requirement that the Subsidiary have a value not in excess of 25% of the Fund’s value at the close of a quarter. The Fund generally will be required to include in its own taxable income the income of the Subsidiary for a tax year, regardless of whether the Fund receives a distribution of the Subsidiary’s income in that tax year, and this income would nevertheless be subject to the distribution requirement for qualification as a regulated investment company and would be taken into account for purposes of the 4% excise tax. In addition, to comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will attempt to ensure that the value of instruments it holds whose value is determined by reference to a specific underlying issuer is never 25% of the total value of Fund assets at the close of any quarter. If the Fund’s investments in instruments whose value is determined by reference to a specific underlying issuer were to exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.

High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.

New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational factors, including, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.