First US Dogecoin ETF expected to debut Thursday as SEC delays Bitwise's proposal

While REX Shares and Osprey Funds' Dogecoin exchange-traded fund is set to list this week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday delayed making a decision on Bitwise's Dogecoin ETF.

The SEC said in a filing that it needed a "longer period" before deciding on whether or not to approve or deny a proposed rule change that would pave the way for Bitwise listing an ETF tracking the popular memecoin. Bitwise's proposed DOGE fund also encountered a delay in June. The SEC on Tuesday also delayed action on Grayscale's spot Hedera ETF.

Meanwhile, REX Shares and Osprey Funds' Dogecoin ETF, which has taken a different path towards listing, is scheduled to start trading this Thursday.

Leveraging the Investment Company Act of 1940, a U.S. federal law that regulates investment funds that pool capital from investors to pursue a common investment strategy in an effort to protect investors from conflicts of interest and fraud, REX Shares and Osprey Funds have found a way to list the first Dogecoin ETF with the ticker DOJE.

"Memecoin ETF era about to kick off it looks like with DOJE slated for a Thursday launch, albeit under the 40 Act,"  Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst Eric Balchunas said on Tuesday in a post to X. "Pretty sure this is first-ever US ETF to hold something that has no utility on purpose."

DOJE will offer investors exposure to Dogecoin through investments in a subsidiary organized in the Cayman Islands, the REX-Osprey DOGE (Cayman) Portfolio S.P. (i.e., the DOGE Subsidiary), according to the prospectus for the new ETF.

New SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has promised a friendlier approach to digital assets, although there are nearly 100 spot crypto ETF filings currently awaiting approval.