The expansion of crypto-focused ETFs is anticipated to speed up this yr, with one seminal meme coin tapped because the likeliest candidate to guide the cost.
“In 2025, a core asset supervisor will launch a meme coin ETF…Our cash’s on DOGE,” crypto buying and selling agency Wintermute wrote in a Friday report.
Conventional monetary establishments confirmed a notable curiosity in buying and selling meme cash final yr, with Solana-based tokens Dogwifhat (WIF), BONK (BONK), and PONKE (PONKE) driving Wintermute’s Over-the-Counter (OTC) market share development from 0.3% in 2023 to five.1% in 2024, it wrote.
No asset supervisor has but filed for a spot Dogecoin ETF within the U.S., however Jake Ostrovskis, an OTC dealer at Wintermute, stood by the agency’s prediction. He acknowledged, nevertheless, that Wintemute’s name was meant to be considerably tongue-in-cheek.
“Quantity in the end drives curiosity, which in the end drives indexation,” he mentioned. “If the meme coin sector does proceed, you’ll be able to think about the place it goes, and essentially the most liquid identify inside that [group] is DOGE.”
Dogecoin was created in 2013 as a joke, parodying the business with its express lack of utility.
Since then, it’s been popularized by tech CEO Elon Musk. Meme cash, usually, have grow to be one in every of crypto’s hottest traits—even when they commerce on little greater than vibes and are as risky as crypto will get.
I stay shocked that no issuer has filed for Dogecoin ETF…
seventh largest digital asset by market cap.
Worst case, it’s a advertising expense for the issuer.
Finest case, you get an especially lenient SEC who approves it, alongside w/ Elon touting it.
— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) January 16, 2025
Amongst conventional monetary establishments, OTC spot volumes for meme cash elevated 210% from 2023 to 2024, per the report. Total, meme cash turned extra standard, representing 16% of Wintermute’s OTC volumes in 2024 in comparison with 7% in 2023.
OTC buying and selling desks are usually tapped by monetary establishments seeking to execute giant transactions. Inside the context of crypto, they will typically present merchants with higher costs by working on a number of exchanges as an alternative of only one platform.
As Ostrovskis described it, a portion of Wintermute’s counterparties come from a standard finance background. The crypto market’s fragmentation generally is a headache, with “so many various tokens and so many various chains,” he mentioned.
Dogecoin and Shiba Inu respectively accounted for 53.6% and 34.6% of Wintermute’s OTC volumes in 2024, but different cash noticed an uptick in reputation.
Among the many most prevalent had been Dogwifhat and Pepecoin (PEPE), which noticed volumes enhance to 1.4% and 9%, respectively.
Nonetheless, Ostrovskis mentioned that shifting narratives inside crypto may affect OTC volumes, with Wintermute’s counterparties turning into significantly occupied with buying and selling meme cash final March and an “AI angle” towards the top of the yr.
“It will get lots of consideration when it is sizzling,” he mentioned. “However in the intervening time, it has cooled down quite a bit.”
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
