future disruptions, bugs, or other problems that could have a material adverse effect on the value of BNB and an investment in the Fund.
Additionally, the BNB Chain’s protocol, including the code of smart contracts running on the BNB Chain, may contain flaws that can be, and have been, exploited by attackers (e.g., the exploit of the BNB Chain bridge token-minting logic that allowed attackers to create unauthorized BNB tokens). BNB has also experienced intentional forks, such as planned hard forks and network upgrades. Such forks and network upgrades refer to protocol changes altering the method by which transactions are validated.
●Ether Risk – In addition to the risks applicable to all crypto assets, ether is subject to unique and substantial risks related to its market and underlying network. The market for ether, like all crypto assets, is subject to rapid price swings, changes and uncertainty. Ether is subject to the risk of fraud, theft, manipulation or security failures. If one or a coordinated group of validators were to gain control of 33% or more of staked ether, they would have the ability to execute extensive attacks, manipulate transactions and fraudulently obtain ether. If such a validator or group of validators were to gain control of one-third of staked ether, they could halt payments. A significant portion of ether is held by a small number of holders sometimes referred to as “whales”. Transactions by these holders may influence the price of ether and these holders may have the ability to manipulate the price of ether. Additionally, the Ethereum blockchain’s protocol, including the code of smart contracts running on the Ethereum blockchain, may contain flaws that can be, and have been, exploited by attackers (e.g., the exploit of The DAO’s smart contract in June 2016 that resulted in a permanent hard fork). Ether has also experienced intentional forks, such as the ’Merge.’ The ’Merge’ refers to protocol changes altering the method by which transactions are validated.
●XRP Risk – In addition to the risks applicable to all crypto assets, XRP is subject to unique and substantial risks related to its market and underlying network. The market for XRP, like all crypto assets, is subject to rapid price swings, changes and uncertainty. XRP is subject to the risk of fraud, theft, manipulation or security failures. A network of independent validator nodes validate transactions on the XRP Ledger, a distributed ledger upon which XRP transactions are processed and settled. These nodes do not mine new blocks but instead participate in a consensus process to ensure transactions are valid and correctly ordered on the ledger. Any node can act as a validator, but for practical purposes, the XRP Ledger depends on a trusted set of validators known as the Unique Node List (the “UNL”). Each node maintains a UNL, which is a list of other validators that the node trusts. For the consensus process to work, there needs to be some overlap in the UNLs across different nodes.
If more than 20% of the validators on a server’s UNL disagree, the server stops validating new ledgers to avoid potential inconsistencies or attacks. If one or more malicious actors obtain control of greater than 20% of the validators on the XRP Ledger, those validators may cause the network to fail to reach a consensus and throw new transactions on the XRP Ledger into doubt. If a malicious actor took control of more than 80% of the validator nodes or the voting power on the most widely used UNLs, those validators would have the ability to manipulate the XRP Ledger, create and engage in invalid transactions, including by spending XRP that has already been spent, or by otherwise breaking the rules of the network. Additionally, the XRP network, including the code of smart contracts running on the XRP network, may contain flaws that can be, and have been, exploited by attackers (e.g., the exploit of The DAO’s smart contract in June 2016 that result in a permanent hard fork).
A significant portion of XRP is held by a small number of holders sometimes referred to as “whales”. Transactions by these holders may influence the price of XRP and these holders may have the ability to manipulate the price of XRP. For example, of the 100 billion XRP generated by the XRP Ledger’s code, the founders of Ripple Labs Inc., a corporation incorporated and existing under the laws of Delaware (“Ripple Labs”) retained 20 billion XRP, and the remaining 80 billion XRP were originally allocated to Ripple Labs.
●Solana (SOL) Risk – In addition to the risks applicable to all crypto assets, Solana (SOL) is subject to unique and substantial risks related to its market and underlying network. The market for Solana (SOL), like all crypto assets, is subject to rapid price swings, changes and uncertainty. Solana (SOL) is subject to the risk of fraud, theft, manipulation or security failures. Additionally, if one or a coordinated group of validators were to gain control of a significant proportion of staked Solana (SOL), they could (depending on the proportion of control gained), impede, reverse or prevent confirmation of transactions, cause a fork in the blockchain, manipulate the blockchain or double spend Solana (SOL). A significant portion of Solana (SOL) is held by a small number of holders sometimes referred to as “whales”. Transactions by these holders may influence the price of Solana (SOL) and these holders may have the ability to manipulate the price of Solana (SOL). The Solana network has reportedly suffered multiple network outages including those arising from bugs (e.g., bugs in the propagation mechanism in 2020 and 2022, bugs leading to duplicate blocks in 2022, and bugs in the client software in 2024), security vulnerabilities (e.g., vulnerability in the client software in 2024), and denial of service and bot attacks (e.g., bot spamming and flooding in 2022, and a DDOS attack in 2021). The development of the Solana network is ongoing and future disruptions, outages, bugs, or other problems could have a material adverse effect on the value and