Could a crypto-friendly White House pave the way for a Dogecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in 2025? “Everything is on the table under the new administration,” ETF Store President Nate Geraci told The Block.
President-elect Donald Trump has presented himself as a pro-crypto leader, aiming to make America the “bitcoin capital of the world.” He even created a meme-friendly Department of Government Efficiency, led by Dogecoin fan Elon Musk.
“We hope the new administration will quickly determine which crypto assets are securities and which are not,” Geraci said. “Once this framework is established, the approval process for additional spot crypto ETFs should proceed with much greater clarity.”
Asset management firms are moving quickly to launch new ETFs. Last week, the Cboe BZX exchange filed four applications for spot Solana funds, and some experts expect a Solana ETF to be launched by the end of 2025.
“I am quite confident that a Solana ETF will be launched in the first half of 2025,” said crypto analyst Louis Sykes. However, he did not share the same optimism for Dogecoin, saying, “Considering that DOGE was born as a joke on Wall Street, the probability is much lower.”
Initially considered a joke, Dogecoin has now become the sixth-largest cryptocurrency. At press time, Dogecoin is trading at around $0.40 and has a market cap of $59 billion, according to The Block. “Today’s humor is tomorrow’s ETF,” said Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, offering hopeful insight into Dogecoin’s future. “Is DOGE going too far? We’ll see,” Balchunas said. “I think someone will try it, why not?”
Alexander Blume, CEO of Two Prime Digital Assets, told The Block that applications for DOGE ETFs will “absolutely” be made. “Following the incredible success of BTC ETFs, enterprising financial firms will look to create all sorts of potential products,” Blume said. “But whether or not it will be approved is a separate issue.” Blume noted that there could be difficulties in creating a fair market due to Dogecoin’s concentration of ownership, and “I think the approval process could be shorter than expected because the new SEC administration will be more permissive,” he said.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler remains a stumbling block for much of the crypto industry and is expected to step down on January 20, 2025. In the meantime, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Chris Giancarlo is a leading candidate for Trump’s proposed first U.S. “Crypto Palace.” “Gensler’s refusal to engage with crypto keeps it at a less mature stage of its development. With the end of this pressure, a more mature and beneficial period of development will begin,” Giancarlo said.
