BlackRock has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a new bitcoin exchange-traded fund that, if approved, would cap investors' upside while offering a measure of protection against losses.

The proposed product, the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF (PBIT), would aim "to create and manage bitcoin exposure," according to a Monday filing with the SEC.

Rather than providing direct bitcoin ownership, the fund would use options and fixed-income strategies to give investors regulated bitcoin exposure with capped upside and some downside protection. Buffered products of this kind are an established category in traditional markets, where they have multiplied since the first such ETFs debuted in 2019; they typically pair a defined level of downside protection with a cap on gains over a set period. The structure is aimed at investors who want to invest in bitcoin without experiencing the full volatility that comes with the top cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin's wild price swings have drawn attention over the years, though its volatility has dampened as more investors have bought into the space. 2025 was the least volatile year for the asset, and the bear market of 2026 has been its most shallow on record. In past cycles, bitcoin's price has dropped as low as 80% from its all-time high; this year it has shed just 50% of its value.

The filing extends BlackRock's push into crypto investment products. The asset manager's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) started trading in 2024 after the SEC gave the green light to 11 spot bitcoin ETFs — an approval that came only after the agency had rejected spot bitcoin ETF applications for years. The most successful of those products in terms of flows, IBIT has helped bring bitcoin to Wall Street. Traders, institutions and retail investors can quickly buy shares that track the price of the leading cryptocurrency without worrying about exchanges or storage of the digital coin — BlackRock buys and holds the bitcoin while investors simply hit the buy or sell button via their brokerage account. PBIT, if it clears the SEC's review process, would sit alongside IBIT in BlackRock's lineup as a risk-managed complement to direct price exposure.

IBIT has the most assets under management out of the bitcoin ETFs, currently handling $65.7 billion. On Monday, the fund received $665.2 million in fresh investment as bitcoin buyers flooded back into the market. That is the biggest number of shares bought in the product since October 2025, when bitcoin notched a new all-time high, according to Farside Investors data.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.