Grayscale launches DOGE Trust—could an ETF be next?

Grayscale Investments has launched the Grayscale Dogecoin Trust, offering institutional and accredited investors exposure to Dogecoin, reflecting a significant increase in institutional interest in the meme coin. According to Grayscale, the move comes in response to growing demand for Dogecoin investment products.

Once created as a joke, Dogecoin has evolved into a widely adopted digital asset with a market capitalization of $50 billion. Its price has surged over the past year, tripling due to rising investor interest and the expansion of crypto-friendly policies, particularly under the Trump administration.

Grayscale sees Dogecoin as a powerful tool for financial inclusion due to its low transaction costs and accessibility. Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, emphasized the role of Dogecoin in enabling financial participation for underserved groups, calling it a “faster, cheaper, and more scalable derivative of Bitcoin” that can help bring those excluded from traditional financial systems into the fold.

Is a Dogecoin ETF Next? Grayscale has followed a similar strategy with other cryptocurrencies, such as its XRP Trust. In September 2024, the firm launched the Grayscale XRP Trust to give accredited investors access to XRP, the token used on the XRP Ledger. The XRP Trust operates similarly to Grayscale’s other single-asset investment trusts, providing daily subscriptions for qualified investors.

Building on this, Grayscale recently filed for a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the New York Stock Exchange. It remains to be seen whether the company will follow a similar path for Dogecoin and launch a DOGE ETF in the future. If Grayscale takes that step, it would signal a further mainstreaming of the cryptocurrency and likely attract more institutional investors into the Dogecoin ecosystem.