Bitwise Files for Dogecoin ETF Amid Shifting US Regulations

Crypto asset manager Bitwise has applied to launch a Dogecoin exchange-traded fund amid further signs U.S. policymakers are warming to crypto.

The application, filed with federal regulators on Tuesday, marks the issuer’s latest step toward rolling out a Dogecoin ETF, which it laid the legal groundwork for last week. 

The fund, if approved, would expose investors to the price movements of the eighth-largest crypto by market capitalization.

Dogecoin is trading at $0.32 at writing time, CoinGecko data shows. The asset touched a three-year-high price of $0.475 last November—roughly around the time Elon Musk ramped up his tweeting about launching his eponymous extra-governmental agency, D.O.G.E.

Exchange-traded funds are investment vehicles that enable investors to gain exposure to assets without directly investing in them. 

Federal regulators in the U.S. approved Bitcoin and Ethereum-based ETFs in the first half of 2024, leading to a rush of institutional dollars into digital assets. 

Such digital asset-based funds have so far attracted more than $4 billion in investments in 2025, according to a Coin Shares report released Monday.  

And now, as a new crop of regulators takes the helm at the Securities Exchange Commission under President Donald Trump, some speculate approvals for other crypto-based funds will soon follow. 

Bitwise’s application to offer the Dogecoin ETF with the SEC comes just days after the firm registered a statutory trust for the fund. That trust, registered last week through CSC Delaware Trust Company in Wilmington, laid the legal groundwork for the asset manager to file for its ETF.

The meme coin-based fund would add to the issuers’ two existing offerings that trade on U.S. stock exchanges—The Bitwise Bitcoin ETF and Bitwise Ethereum ETF.

Meanwhile, the asset manager also filed for Solana and XRP-based ETFs late last year in a bid to expand its digital asset-based investment offerings. Other issuers have followed Bitwise’s lead, applying to roll out funds in the U.S. that would hold cryptocurrencies as vast and varied as Official Trump, Bonk, and HBAR. 

The SEC generally has 45 days from the filing date to make an initial decision to approve, deny, or extend its review of ETF applications. This timeframe can be extended multiple times, with the final deadline for a decision usually set within 240 days of the initial filing.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair