The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) focused on the securities of companies that engage in Bitcoin mining. New Gen Minting, LLC, known as Viridi Funds, (the “Sub-Adviser”) is responsible for security investment recommendations. The Sub-Adviser acts as a non-discretionary sub-adviser and provides its investment recommendations to Empowered Funds, LLC dba EA Advisers (the “Adviser”). In turn, the Adviser makes the corresponding trades.

The Fund’s portfolio managers invest in equity securities of companies that engage in and/or assist other market participants in creating Bitcoin (“Bitcoin Miners”).

Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in securities of companies that are Bitcoin Miners. The Fund’s 80% policy is non-fundamental and can be changed without shareholder approval. However, Fund shareholders would be given at least 60 days’ notice prior to any such change.

The Sub-Adviser will consider a Bitcoin Miner to have satisfied the Fund’s naming rule policy if the company derives a majority of its revenue or profits from, or invests a majority of its assets in, Bitcoin mining activities.

The Fund may also invest up to 20% of its net assets in equity securities of companies in the semiconductor industry, focusing on those that develop or manufacture computer chips used by Bitcoin Miners.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital asset, sometimes referred to as a digital currency or “cryptocurrency.” The ownership and behavior of Bitcoin is determined by participants in an online, peer-to peer network sometimes referred to as the “Bitcoin Network”. The Bitcoin Network connects computers that run publicly accessible, or “open source,” software that follows the rules and procedures governing the Bitcoin Network. This is commonly referred to as the Bitcoin Protocol. The value of Bitcoin is generally not backed by any government (except for El Salvador, whose government adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021), corporation, or other identified body. Instead, its value is determined in part by the supply and demand in markets created to facilitate trading of Bitcoin. Ownership and transaction records for bitcoin are protected through public-key cryptography. The supply of Bitcoin is determined by the Bitcoin Protocol. No single entity owns or operates the Bitcoin Network. The Bitcoin Network is collectively maintained by (1) Bitcoin Miners, which is a decentralized group of participants who run computer software that results in the recording and validation of transactions, (2) developers who propose improvements to the Bitcoin Protocol and the software that enforces the protocol and (3) users who choose which version of the Bitcoin software to run. From time to time, the developers suggest changes to the Bitcoin software. If a sufficient number of users and Bitcoin Miners elect not to adopt the changes, a new digital asset, operating on the earlier version of the Bitcoin software, may be created. This is often referred to as a “fork.” The price of Bitcoin, including the companies in which the company invests that have exposure to Bitcoin, may reflect the impact of these forks.

What are Bitcoin Miners?

Bitcoin miners process, validate, and securely transfer Bitcoin. Bitcoin mining is a necessary and core component of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Anyone who chooses to participate in Bitcoin mining, whether an individual or a company, will run various computers and machines to solve a variety of math problems. As a result of solving these problems, the network is secured, and transactions are recorded and stored on the “blockchain,” which is essentially a database maintained across many computers.

For example, if someone (a sender) wanted to send two units of Bitcoin to another person (the recipient), Bitcoin Miners would play the role of processing, validating, and securely transferring the transaction. If, however, the sender only had one unit of Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Miners would reject the transaction as invalid to protect the ecosystem. As a result of Bitcoin Miners, issues like double-spending and fraudulent transactions are reduced and/or eliminated.

Due to Bitcoin Miners providing value to the ecosystem, they are rewarded when they successfully validate and secure transactions. Bitcoin mining as an industry has had significant energy consumption growth in the past decade as more Bitcoin Miners have joined the industry. Similar to how the growth of data centers and cloud computing has impacted the energy industry, Bitcoin Miners also have impacted the energy industry due to the increasing amount of hardware required to secure the network.

What are Semiconductor Companies?

The semiconductor industry includes companies that design, fabricate and/or manufacture semiconductors and semiconductor devices, like integrated circuits or circuit boards. Semiconductors are essential components of computers and other electronic systems.

What are the types of companies in which the Fund will invest?

As noted above, the Fund will primarily invest in the securities of Bitcoin Miners and may also invest in semiconductor companies.

How are the Fund’s securities selected?

The Sub-Adviser’s team has a strong and deep knowledge of Bitcoin Miners and semiconductor industries. The Sub-Adviser considers the following when evaluating investment decisions.

The Sub-Adviser believes that there may be imbalances in the market pricing of particular companies’ securities. If the Sub-Adviser’s analyses determine that a particular security’s market value differs significantly from the Sub-Adviser’s assessment of its value, the Sub-Adviser may recommend the Fund purchase, sell, or weight the Fund’s portfolio holdings accordingly. The Sub-Adviser may recommend an increase in, decrease in, or elimination of weightings of the Fund’s portfolio holdings, based upon its assessment of one or more of the following:

With respect to Bitcoin Miners, the Sub-Adviser will typically prefer investments in companies in the Self-Mining category, because of their greater exposure to Bitcoin mining, but may recommend investments in any Bitcoin Miner it determines is appropriate for the Fund’s portfolio.

Bitcoin Miners will be required to have a significant portion of their business in Self-Mining, Hosted Miners or Hosting Services. In general, the term “significant portion of the business” means that a company derives a majority of its revenue or profits from, or invests a majority of its assets in, Bitcoin mining activities.

With respect to Semiconductor companies, the Sub-Adviser will typically prefer investments in companies that develop or manufacture semiconductors and semiconductor devices used in Bitcoin mining.

In what types of securities will the Fund invest?

The Fund may invest in U.S. equity securities and non-U.S. equity securities in developed markets, including via depositary receipts. Under normal market circumstances, the Fund’s portfolio will consist of the securities of approximately 15-30 Companies. The Fund may invest in common stock of newly listed initial public offerings (“IPOs”), IPO stocks derived from Special Purpose Acquisitions Corporations (“SPACs”), and securities that result from reverse mergers (in which a private company acquires a public company to bypass the process of going public) (“Reverse Mergers”). SPACs are companies with no commercial operations that are established solely to raise capital from investors for the purpose of acquiring one or more operating businesses.

The Fund will be considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. The Fund may invest in securities without regard to market capitalization, including investments in micro-cap companies (companies with a market capitalization of less than $300 million). The Fund will concentrate its investments (invest more than 25% of its net assets) in securities in the crypto-mining industries.

A more complete description of the Fund’s portfolio construction attributes is set forth below under the heading “Additional Information about the Fund’s Investment Objective and Strategies.”