The United States exchange-traded fund sector has become a Doge-eat-Doge world in recent weeks, with several asset managers clamoring to launch spot Dogecoin ETFs.
But at least one fund issuer isn’t hopping into the Doge-pile. For cryptocurrency investment firm Canary Capital, the Shiba Inu-inspired meme coin is all bark and no bite.
Canary Capital CEO Steven McClurg told Decrypt this week that his firm has no plans to launch a spot Dogecoin ETF, pointing both to the digital currency’s unlimited supply and lack of utility.
The company is one of several issuers engaged in a race to ramp up its crypto-based investment offerings following the U.S.’ pivot to a more digital asset-friendly regime under President Donald Trump. Canary has already filed to launch spot funds based around Solana, XRP, Litecoin, and HBAR—but McClurg said the firm won’t join the DOGE ETF fray.
“I have a hard time putting [Dogecoin] in an ETF wrapper, because the coin is literally designed to go down in value and constantly increase in supply,” McClurg told Decrypt.
“There’s no limited supply there, so you’re essentially putting something in an ETF wrapper that’s designed to go towards zero,” he added.
Dogecoin is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, CoinGecko data shows. It is trading around a price of $0.25 as of writing time, down by nearly half since it climbed to a three-year-high price of $0.48 in December.
DOGE does not have a firm supply limit, marking a strong contrast with other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and XRP. Mining on the Dogecoin blockchain yields 10,000 DOGE per block, with mined tokens being added to the ever-expanding overall supply.
Granted, there are other chains that have uncapped token supplies, including Solana—another asset that Canary aims to launch a fund for. But there’s a key difference in his view: utility.
As a utility token, SOL is used to pay for transactions on the Solana network. The network and its native token are used to trade popular meme coins such as Official Trump, BONK and Dogwifhat. Meanwhile, the token is also used to interact with decentralized applications, plus a growing array of games on the network.
Meme coins, by comparison, are famed for their lack of utility—and Dogecoin, the original meme coin that was created as a joke back in 2013, exemplifies that ethos well. While die-hard DOGE fans have implemented protocols to launch meme coins and collectibles on the chain, similar to what’s happened on Bitcoin, they’re niche offerings with a limited user base.
Dogecoin has amassed legions of loyal holders, including some prominent ones. Tesla founder Elon Musk is an ardent Dogecoin supporter, and he defended the cryptocurrency’s unique tokenomics last November, writing in an X post: “I think the flat inflation of Dogecoin, which means decreasing percentage inflation, is a feature, not a bug.”
Encouraged by the token’s loyal fanbase, some asset managers have applied in recent weeks to roll out exchange-traded funds that track Dogecoin’s price. Bitwise filed last month to launch a Dogecoin-based fund, following the lead of asset managers Osprey and Rex Shares. Meanwhile, Grayscale last week launched a Dogecoin Trust, soon after filing with federal regulators to convert the fund into a spot ETF.
More broadly, investment firms have pumped the gas on efforts to launch new crypto-based ETFs for U.S. investors, with issuers filing to offer funds based on a wide range of cryptocurrencies such as XRP, Solana, Official Trump, and Bonk.
The applications come amid a slew of digital asset regulation and policy shifts in the U.S., such as the nomination of a new, pro-crypto Securities and Exchange Commission chairman. The SEC has also launched a crypto task force, with Commissioner Hester Peirce stating that the regulator has to work out of a “mess” created by the previous administration.
The tone shift—paired with the approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs last year—has ignited issuers’ hopes that the federal regulators could grant approvals to a slew of crypto-based investment vehicles in the coming years.
While McClurg justified Canary’s filing of a Solana ETF due to SOL having more substantial utility than DOGE, he admitted that it wasn’t a key focus for the firm.
“It’s like, ‘Hey, well, if we’re doing these other ones, we might as well jump in and get in on the action if something happens,’” McClurg told Decrypt of its SOL ETF filing.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
