BLOK Falls Short of Miner Exposure as Concentrated Fund Outperforms

The Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) has underperformed a concentrated pure-play bitcoin miner fund, WGMI, by a wide margin over the past year. BLOK returned just 7.77% over the trailing 12 months, while WGMI surged 111.45%. The reason for this disparity lies in BLOK's diversified portfolio, which includes semiconductor and infrastructure names like AMD and IBM, as well as payment processors and exchanges.

BLOK's top ten positions account for 37.91% of the portfolio, with Figure Technology Solutions, Robinhood Markets, TeraWulf, Galaxy Digital, and Cipher Digital making up the largest holdings. However, this diversification has come at a cost, diluting the miner exposure to roughly a third of the book. As a result, BLOK owners who wanted exposure to miners got only a portion of it.

WGMI, on the other hand, concentrates on publicly traded bitcoin miners, with names like MARA, CleanSpark, Riot Platforms, IREN, Cipher, and TeraWulf making up the bulk of the book. This concentration has allowed WGMI to amplify the mining economics, resulting in a wide gap between the two funds.

While BLOK's diversification provides a cushion against losses, it also means that investors who want pure miner exposure may need to look elsewhere. The tradeoff is real: when the mining dynamic reverses, WGMI will be more vulnerable to losses without the fintech or enterprise sleeve to cushion the fall.