Bitwise has officially submitted a registration application for a dogecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) as demand for memecoin increases in the market.
A “Bitwise Dogecoin ETF” was submitted Wednesday evening and appeared at the Corporations Division of the Department of State in the US state of Delaware. Such deposits can often be spoofing, but Bitwise confirmed the registration in a post to The block. A Delaware registration is a preliminary step before submitting a formal ETF proposal to the SEC. It establishes the legal entity that would manage the potential ETF, but it is not the same as filing an application for ETF approval with the SEC.
This is because investment managers Rex Shares and Osprey Funds have filed documents for several crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including one for dogecoin.
Potential approval of the ETF by regulators like the SEC would provide dogecoin with institutional validation, potentially attracting more conservative investors to memecoin. Increased demand could push DOGE prices higher if the product captures even a small fraction of the inflows seen by Bitcoin ETFs (over $50 billion last year).
DOGE is the world’s largest memecoin with a market capitalization of $52 billion as of Thursday. It has more than tripled in the past year as a speculative token that follows gains in Bitcoin and, more recently, the creation of a Department of Government Effectiveness in the United States.
Abbreviated DOGE, the non-governmental agency is led by technocrat Elon Musk and aims to reduce government spending while streamlining federal worker operations. This proposal was first proposed in mid-October and officially recognized during Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday.
The DOGE website briefly displayed a dogecoin token logo on Tuesday, which was later updated to display only its name. Nonetheless, the apparent connection to memecoin has spurred demand among traders, who may use DOGE as a bet on the work being done by the DOGE agency.