Beneath the market excitement of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) lies a complex engine driven by one critical component: a real-time Bitcoin ETF data infrastructure. The stability, compliance, and trustworthiness of ETF products depend heavily on the data powering their core functions, from daily Net Asset Valuation (NAV) and Intraday Indicative Values (IIV) to reserve verification and authorized participant arbitrage.
For an asset that trades 24/7 across global exchanges, the traditional NAV calculation, the process of determining an ETF's per-share value, presents a unique challenge. A spot Bitcoin ETF requires a robust, consolidated price feed to support its official end-of-day NAV and IIV. To achieve this accuracy, funds reference regulated benchmark indices that employ Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP) style methodologies and outlier controls, creating a manipulation-resistant rate from multiple high-volume exchanges.
The accuracy of this process hinges on the data provider, who plays the critical role of aggregating and validating these feeds from a fragmented global market. Amberdata delivers these real-time, manipulation-resistant price feeds, aggregating global exchange data to power benchmark pricing and intraday valuation for an accurate spot Bitcoin ETF NAV calculation.
To earn investor trust, a spot Bitcoin ETF must prove it holds the Bitcoin (BTC) it claims through a crypto ETF Proof of Reserves (PoR). Reserve verification is an audit process that uses on-chain data and third-party attestations to confirm holdings.
This on-chain approach provides more independently verifiable transparency than traditional attestations alone, which rely on periodic reports from third-party auditors. It involves daily monitoring of the fund’s specific blockchain addresses and their unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) — the individual pieces of BTC held in those addresses.
To meet compliance demands, funds create an audit trail by combining immutable on-chain records and normalized off-chain trade data. Amberdata provides this unified data, creating a comprehensive audit trail that meets your regulatory reporting requirements. We also enable the granular, real-time tracking of fund addresses and UTXOs, allowing you to automate near-real-time verification of holdings.
Authorized participants (APs), specialized institutions that keep an ETF's market price aligned with its NAV, engage in arbitrage to close NAV spreads.
When the ETF price drifts above its NAV, they use data to spot the arbitrage opportunity. They then deliver BTC in-kind or via cash to the fund to create new ETF shares, which they sell on the market to push the price down. When the price falls below NAV, they buy the cheaper shares and redeem them for BTC or cash, depending on the fund's structure and SEC approvals. Access to low-latency order book data allows an AP to act faster, correct price discrepancies more efficiently, and minimize the ETF's deviation from its benchmark.
Amberdata’s low-latency market data feeds provide APs with the necessary speed to execute arbitrage strategies and minimize tracking error.
Trusted by Franklin Templeton and Galaxy Digital, Amberdata provides the institutional-grade, end-to-end solution you need to access accurate, real-time, consolidated data. We solve the core challenge of a fragmented 24/7 market by delivering high-fidelity and SOC 2-compliant data feeds.
As an award-winning data provider with a proven record of meeting client expectations, we understand your organization's data needs and will match you with a suitable solution.
From real-time NAV calculation and on-chain PoR to enabling AP arbitrage and ensuring compliance, every function requires high-fidelity data. Request a demo today to learn about our ETF data solutions.