On December 9, 2025, Nicholas Wealth LLC, in partnership with Tidal Investments LLC, filed two Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that bring a dose of personality to the typically staid world of fund filings. The products — one designed to capture Bitcoin's so-called overnight alpha and another engineered to buffer against extreme sell-offs — drew immediate attention from industry observers, including Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas.
AfterDark ETF: Harvesting Bitcoin's Nocturnal Edge
The first product, the Nicholas Bitcoin and Treasuries AfterDark ETF (ticker: NGHT), aims to capture Bitcoin's tendency to generate stronger returns when traditional U.S. markets are closed. Under the strategy, the fund takes long Bitcoin exposure only after the U.S. market closes, then shifts to Treasuries and cash equivalents during daytime trading hours. It does not hold spot Bitcoin directly, relying instead on U.S.-listed Bitcoin futures, Bitcoin ETPs, and options for its nightly stance. According to the prospectus, up to 25% of assets may be deployed through a Cayman Islands subsidiary for derivatives flexibility, and portfolio turnover is expected to be high — a deliberate feature of the strategy.
Empirical research cited in the filing shows Bitcoin's average overnight return stands at approximately 0.093%, compared with -0.029% during U.S. trading hours. This structural quirk, well-documented in crypto markets, forms the backbone of NGHT's investment thesis. As Balchunas noted on X: “Bitcoin after dark: new filing for an ETF that will only hold bitcoin at night, buying it when the US market closes and selling it when it opens. Doesn’t mean the ETFs aren’t having impact… But yeah, Bitcoin After Dark ETF could put up better returns, we’ll see tho.” He also framed the broader trend: “The ETF industry is going to try everything you can poss imagine and some things you can’t imagine. Is it a bit much? Yeah. But that’s how capitalism works… People gotta be free to try stuff. That’s how you get the next big thing.”
Tail ETF: Hedging Without the Sleepless Nights
The companion fund, the Nicholas Bitcoin Tail ETF (ticker: BHDG), takes a different approach. It uses long puts on Bitcoin ETFs or indices to protect against sharp drawdowns, financing those hedges through sold calls or call spreads. In practice, if Bitcoin plunges, BHDG's structure is designed to appreciate; if Bitcoin trades sideways, the puts decay; and if Bitcoin rallies, the call spreads may cap upside. Treasuries and money-market funds serve as collateral, providing stability. The fund aims to offer Bitcoin exposure while allowing investors to “sleep at night,” as the filing's tone suggests.
Neither NGHT nor BHDG holds spot Bitcoin directly, a design that keeps the strategies within established regulatory parameters while allowing heavy use of derivatives. The SEC will review the filings over the next several months, with both funds expected to debut in 2026 if approved. The risk sections of the filings are extensive, covering Bitcoin's volatility, forks, leverage dynamics, liquidity gaps, counterparty exposure, tax complexities, and the challenge of Bitcoin's 24/7 trading cycle. For adventurous investors, however, these ETFs represent a structured and regulated way to exploit Bitcoin's market peculiarities.
The filing of NGHT and BHDG signals a new era in crypto ETFs: moving beyond the simple “Bitcoin in an ETF” wrapper toward products that slice Bitcoin by time windows and risk profiles. Whether these concepts attract meaningful assets will depend on performance, market conditions, and investor appetite for specialization. For now, the ETF industry is clearly having fun — and filing paperwork at a pace that suggests caffeine futures might be the next hot commodity.