It took more than a decade for institutions to take bitcoin (BTC) seriously as an investment vehicle, even though well-known financial pioneers had adopted the largest cryptocurrency on the market years earlier.
But not even a year after the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have been adopted by pension funds, hedge funds and even universities, one issuer is taking it a step further.
The latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission aim to bring meme coin ETFs, such as those tracking dogecoin (DOGE) or US President Donald Trump’s Trump coin (TRUMP), to the market.
Not only is this a bold move because DOGE and TRUMP are much less established and legitimate tokens, especially in the eyes of Wall Street, but meme coins do not provide any real utility, unlike bitcoin or Ethereum’s ether (ETH). Its value simply comes from how much people believe it is worth making the launch of an ETF that tracks currencies an ethical debate.
“Opinions vary widely on the value of meme coins. I can’t see its long-term value, but others have different opinions,” said James Angel, an affiliate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy. “However, a sponsor of a meme coin-based ETF must be very careful in marketing the ETF. “It would be highly unethical to market an ETF as a prudent investment vehicle.”
Steve McClurg, former CEO of Valkyrie and founder of Canary Capital, a hedge fund that has filed for several non-meme cryptocurrency ETFs, said he is not personally a fan of memecoin ETFs and that while the firm considered apply, ultimately decided not to.
“I don’t know how you can be a fiduciary managing an ETF knowing that the basis of your underlying [asset] “It is intended and designed to reach zero,” he said. Although meme coins are not technically designed to go to zero, they are very susceptible to crashing once the hype around them dies down.
However, he believes that memecoin ETFs will eventually be approved. The former SEC under Chairman Gary Gensler, who resigned on Monday after Trump took office, has so far approved several bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, but declined to recognize a potential Solana ETF (SOL), for which several issuers had submitted initial documents.
More than 30 requests are still pending, three of them linked to memecoins.
“It is very difficult for the SEC, where the president chooses the commissioners, to deny a meme coin issued by the president,” he said.
Meme coins have long divided the crypto community. Some find them fun to trade as they can quickly generate huge profits through the so-called pump and dump, but others find them worrying, especially when they are issued by the president of the country.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I think presidents should focus on governing the country and not launching fraudulent tokens,” Nic Carter, a crypto influencer and venture capitalist, said in a post on X. Carter has been a strong supporter of Trump.
Carter believes there are multiple conflicts of interest when presidents start or run a business, let alone launch a cryptocurrency or DeFi protocol for which they set policy. Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump last year introduced a crypto lending platform called World Liberty Financial.
