The point
Every QSI Crypto Index carries one fee: 0.35%, charged only when the index actually rebalances. There is no annual management fee anywhere in the QSI suite. Early in the build we modeled a flat 2.5% a year instead and deleted it before launch, because an annual fee is charged whether or not the index rebalances that year.
Why we deleted the annual fee before we ever charged it
An annual management fee is charged on the value sitting in the account, once a year. The amount is the same whether the index rebalanced twelve times that year or zero times, so the calendar is the only thing it tracks. We wanted the fee to track the work instead: the rebalance itself, priced by how much of the portfolio the rule actually moved.
A fee that only appears when a rebalance happens also has to be shown every time it is charged, tied to a specific transaction on a specific date, where an annual fee can be stated once and then sit in the background. Every fee and every methodology detail at Qatobit is meant to be visible before anyone has to ask, and charging per transaction makes that visibility mechanical.
We built the QSI suite before it had a single customer, which left room to model both versions and see what each one rewards. Charge annually and the incentive is to hold weights close enough to target and skip a rebalance whenever the transaction costs more effort than the calendar strictly demands. The per-rebalance version pays us only when we do the portfolio rebalancing the rule calls for, at a cost that scales with how much of the portfolio moved. How a methodology handles its own incentives is worth checking before you trust it, and our 5-point framework for evaluating any crypto index methodology says where to look.
How the 0.35% per-rebalance fee works
What the fee applies to
The fee is charged on the transaction amount, the value of crypto that actually changes hands in a given action. On the monthly rebalance date, holdings that have grown above their target weight are trimmed, and holdings that have fallen below it are topped up, inside rebalancing bands set in each index's own methodology. The 0.35% is charged on that trimmed-and-topped-up value, the part of the portfolio in motion that month. A position sitting still inside its band carries no charge. The mechanic is the ordinary one: selling an overweight asset class to buy an underweight one. Written the other way, 0.35% is 35 basis points of the transaction amount.
The same rate applies to a lump-sum investment into a crypto index, a recurring SIP contribution into one, or an exit from one. All four actions carry it, so there is no separate schedule of fees to track. The rate sits slightly below what a single-asset transaction costs on the platform. A Quick Buy or Sell of one cryptocurrency is 0.4% of the transaction amount; a basket buy, sell, or rebalance inside any QSI index is 0.35%. Converting crypto to crypto, including stablecoin swaps, is 0.1%. All three are transaction fees, charged only when a transaction happens.
When it's charged
The rebalance runs on a fixed calendar, the same date every month, mechanically. A defined set of events, a security failure in a holding or a structural break in its liquidity, can open an off-cycle review outside that date. Where that review ends in a transaction, the same 0.35% applies to the transaction amount it moves. Where it ends without one, there is nothing to charge against.
What a quiet month costs
In a month where every holding is already close enough to its target weight that no trim or top-up is needed, the transaction amount is small or zero, and the fee follows it down to nearly nothing. An annual fee does not move in a month like that. It charges the same amount as in a month where every holding needed a full reset, which is the gap that ruled out the 2.5% model.
Why the rate is public when the weights are not
The QSI methodology publishes its construction framework in full and holds its exact weight calibration proprietary: the specific target percentages, and the bands they can drift within, the same way any serious index keeps its settings its own while publishing its logic. The fee sits outside that. 0.35% is printed, and it applies identically across QSI Core, QSI Growth, QSI VRION, and QSI GEQ8. It does not move with market conditions, index size, or how long a position has been held. The rate lives in the same document under change control, versioned and dated, so a revision would leave the previous rate visible rather than quietly overwritten.
The 0.35% worked in rupees
Take an investor holding ₹50,000 in QSI Growth, a construction that carries a Gold allocation and a stable reserve alongside its crypto positions. In a month where Solana has run above its target weight, the rebalance trims ₹4,000 out of the Solana position and puts ₹4,000 into the holdings that have drifted below their targets. That reserve is the rebalancing capital, which is what lets a top-up happen without selling a conviction position. The transaction amount for that rebalance is ₹8,000, the ₹4,000 trimmed plus the ₹4,000 topped up. That works out to a fee of ₹28, 0.35% of ₹8,000, and it is the whole cost of that month's rebalance.
Run the same ₹50,000 through the deleted annual fee instead: 2.5% a year is ₹1,250, regardless of what the index did that year. A Crypto SIP contribution into the same index carries the identical 0.35%, charged on the amount contributed each cadence, so the route the money takes into the index does not change what it costs.
A busier month scales the same arithmetic up. QSI VRION holds three assets and no buffer, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, so a sharp move in any one of them produces a larger rebalance. Say an investor holds ₹2,00,000 in QSI VRION, in a month where Bitcoin has outrun the other two: the rebalance trims ₹15,000 out of Bitcoin and splits it as a ₹7,500 top-up into Ethereum and another ₹7,500 into Solana. The transaction amount is ₹30,000, and the fee is 0.35% of that, ₹105. On that same ₹2,00,000, the annual fee would have charged ₹5,000 whatever the year's rebalances added up to.
The cost you actually carry
The cost of holding a QSI index is proportional to the work the index does. You do not need to time a rebalance or second-guess the calendar, since the schedule is fixed and mechanical; how a crypto index rebalances during a market crash walks through it, drawdowns included. On any given rebalance, what you see is the transaction amount and the 0.35% charged against it.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an annual management fee on QSI indices?
None. All four QSI Crypto Indices, Core, Growth, VRION, and GEQ8, carry the same structure: the only fee is 0.35%, charged per basket buy, sell, or rebalance.
What does the 0.35% fee apply to?
It applies to the transaction amount: the value of crypto trimmed or topped up when the index rebalances, a lump-sum or SIP contribution into the index, or an exit from it. A position that isn't transacting that month carries no charge.
How often is the fee charged?
On the monthly rebalance date, mechanically, plus on any lump-sum investment, SIP contribution, or exit. An off-cycle review triggered by a security or liquidity event carries the same fee logic when it produces an actual transaction.
Why did Qatobit delete the annual fee?
Early in the build we modeled a flat 2.5% per year and rejected it before launch. It would have charged the same amount whether or not the index did any work that year, and we wanted the fee tied to the rebalance.
Does the fee change depending on which QSI index I hold?
No. All four QSI indices carry the identical 0.35% per-rebalance fee and no annual management fee, whatever the construction of each one.
Crypto investments are subject to market risk. Not financial advice.
“A better allocation begins with a better explanation.”
Qatobit principle
Published construction. Fixed cadence. Versioned control.
