Rex and Osprey Want to Bring Trump Memecoin to Institutions With a New Crypto ETF

Crypto issuers actually appear to suppose that something is feasible now that Donald Trump is in energy.

Change-traded fund issuer Rex Shares and crypto asset supervisor Osprey Funds filed on Tuesday for quite a few crypto-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs), together with a Trump ETF, in keeping with a submit Tuesday with the Securities and Change Fee (SEC).

The ETF would monitor the value of TRUMP, the memecoin launched by the president himself on Fridayjust a few days earlier than his inauguration. The coin has amassed practically $17 billion in buying and selling quantity prior to now 24 hours, whereas falling practically 25% over the identical interval.

First Girl Melania Trump additionally launched her personal token known as MELANIA, which is at the moment buying and selling at round $4. Each tokens are memecoins and due to this fact don’t have any intrinsic worth. Merchants merely wager on the rise or lower within the worth of the tokens.

An ETF that tracks its worth would due to this fact present no worth to consumers.

“This appears to me like issuers are pushing the boundaries with a brand new SEC administration whereas concurrently making an attempt a brand new construction for offering publicity to digital property in an ETF wrapper,” stated James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The issuers have additionally filed paperwork to launch an ETF that tracks the value of Dogecoin (DOGE), one other memecoin. In one among his first implementing decisionsTrump created a ‘Division of Authorities Effectivity’ by renaming the US Digital Service. Whereas the entity is supposedly tasked with streamlining sure authorities companies and departments, that’s not the case website on the time of writing there was only a picture of the dogecoin mascot up.

The SEC underneath former Chairman Gary Gensler has been cautious in approving ETFs that monitor cryptocurrencies. It took years for issuers to get the inexperienced mild to launch each a spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF and a spot ethereum (ETH) ETF. It is unclear how shortly these newest functions, which additionally embrace ETFs monitoring BONK (one other memecoin), XRP (related to the corporate Ripple), and SOL (a layer 1 blockchain), might be permitted.

Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas called the Trump ETF software ‘surreal’.