When Bitwise Asset Management launched its Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, it made a promise: hand over 10% of gross profits yearly to the individuals who maintain Bitcoin working. Fourteen months later, that promise remains to be being stored — and the checks are getting greater.
A Growing Commitment To Open-Source Work
The agency introduced a $233,000 donation on March 4, directed at three organizations that fund BTC open-source builders: Brink, OpenSats, and the Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund.
Combined with final 12 months’s contribution, Bitwise has now put greater than $380,000 into the palms of programmers who preserve and safe the world’s largest cryptocurrency community. None of that cash got here from advertising budgets or company goodwill gestures. It got here straight from ETF income.
As a part of our annual dedication to help Bitcoin open-source builders, Bitwise is proud to donate $233,000 to help the unsung heroes sustaining and securing the Bitcoin community.
This 12 months marked important progress for the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF ($BITB), making this… pic.twitter.com/wjEoLHDVsY
— Bitwise (@Bitwise) March 4, 2026
Image Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
The Bitcoin ETF on the middle of this — ticker BITB — has pulled in over $2.5 billion in investor inflows because it launched. That progress is what drives the scale of the annual donation.
As BITB grows, so does the contribution. Bitwise stated as a lot when asserting this 12 months’s reward, confirming that future donations will scale with the fund’s property below administration.
Thank you to the @Bitwise staff for supporting open supply Bitcoin growth! https://t.co/xDgQTc5RHk
— Brink (@bitcoinbrink) March 4, 2026
Bitcoin’s Invisible Workforce
Open-source builders not often make headlines. They write code, overview proposals, repair bugs, and argue over technical upgrades in public boards — largely with out pay.
The three nonprofits receiving Bitwise’s donation exist particularly to vary that. Brink and OpenSats supply grants and fellowships to full-time contributors. The Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund focuses on reaching builders in international locations the place monetary freedom is most in danger.
For these organizations, company donations of this dimension are important. The prime crypto asset’s core growth has no central authority and no firm behind it writing paychecks. Funding comes from donors, and consistency issues.
Beyond Crypto
Bitwise has prolonged the identical mannequin to Ethereum. Based on reviews, the agency additionally donated a portion of income from its spot Ethereum ETF — ETHW — to Ethereum open-source contributors final 12 months.
The firm manages over $15 billion in property throughout greater than 40 merchandise, together with ETFs tied to XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin.
The broader image is a agency utilizing its ETF enterprise not simply to revenue from crypto, however to fund the work that retains it purposeful.
Whether that turns into an trade normal stays to be seen. For now, Bitwise is among the few doing it persistently — and placing the receipts on the desk yearly.
Featured picture from Pexels, chart from TradingView
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