Think of COIN like as serving customers in the crypto industry, like, say JP Morgan serves clients in the investment world. It offers accounts, facilitates trade, margin and lending, and so on. A bitcoin ETF, on the other hand, simply holds bitcoin in a tradeable ETF. That's it. The ETF will only move with bitcoin prices, whereas COIN will move with company earnings as well. We would consider them quite different, though of course sentiment on crypto will certainly influence COIN's share price. For crypto enthusiasts, we think both can be owned. COIN could have more leverage if earnings accelerate, and we like the company, but like owning gold bullion and a gold stock, we think it is fine to own both.
Authors of this answer, directors, partners and/or officers of 5i Research and/or affiliated companies have a financial or other interest in JPM, COIN.