Key Highlights:
- Dogecoin is the first meme coin listed in the United States to have an exchange-traded fund.
- With the ticker under the abbreviation DOJE, the product recorded almost 6 million turnover in the initial hour.
- The Dogecoin ETF was launched shortly after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) changed its policy of large-scale approvals of spot crypto products.
On September 18, the first Dogecoin ETF was launched in the U.S. market by Rex Shares in collaboration with Osprey. The fund, which is listed in Cboe Global Markets under the ticker “DOJE,” instantly attracted investor attention as it generated nearly $6 million in trades in the first hour of trading.
New Dogecoin ETF Smashes Expectations
The opening shocked one of the old school ETF gurus, Eric Balchunas, who had previously forecasted a far milder launch. In a follow-up post to X, he acknowledged that his prediction was badly misplaced: “My over/under got destroyed in the first hour of trading as $DOJE already posting nearly $6m in volume.”
Balchunas had previously put hopes down, indicating that the product would see itself amass about $2.5 million in turnover within the first day. He then wrote that number as something “not too special,” that the fund was incorporated under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as opposed to the more familiar Securities Act of 1933, and was not managed by one of the best asset management firms. These aspects, he opined, could have weakened the initial steam.
My over/under got destroyed in the first hour of trading as $DOJE already posting nearly $6m in volume. That’s shockingly solid.. Most ETFs trade under $1m on Day One. https://t.co/wjAIowq7NW pic.twitter.com/7z22WIKPy0
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) September 18, 2025
Nevertheless, the initial session of DOJE made it far ahead of the majority of new ETFs. Balchunas admitted the power of the debut, terming it “shockingly solid,” considering that most fresh funds have a hard time making it to the $1 million mark on their opening day. Now, analysts expect Dogecoin’s price to surge to the $1 level.
SEC Opens Up to Dozens of Spot Crypto ETFs
The release of the Dogecoin ETF was only a few hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission gave its consent to alter the rules that had long been used to impose impediments on the launch of new spot funds concerning digital assets. On Wednesday, commissioners unanimously endorsed permitting three national exchanges, the NYSE, Nasdaq, and Cboe, to implement generic listing requirements of cryptocurrency and additional commodity-based ETFs.
The ruling will conclude the time-consuming and case-by-case approach that asset managers are currently going through to be approved. Earlier, the application may have taken up to 240 days, and it was a two-step process with one application filled by the asset manager and the other by the exchange. Within the new model, the time delay between filling and launching may be reduced to 75 days.
Teddy Fusaro, the president of Bitwise Asset Management, described the decision as a landmark:
“This is a watershed moment in America’s regulatory approach to digital assets, overturning more than a decade of precedent since the first bitcoin ETF filing in 2013.”
SEC Chair Paul Atkins stressed the fact that the revised process was supposed to help initiate financial innovation and reduce entry barriers to digital products.
What Comes Next?
Observers in the industry believe that the first ETFs to capitalize on the new regulations would be the funds tracking Solana and XRP, which have over one year of pending applications each. The first line of U.S.-approved spot crypto ETFs was based on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) years after being rejected and the subject of litigation.
Steve McClurg, CEO of Canary Capital, whose company has multiple pending crypto ETF products, said that the new SEC vote eliminated the last procedural hurdle but warned that work remained. “Marketing plans, legal filings, and work with service providers all have to be addressed, based on the new roadmap,” he explained.
According to legal analysts, the regulations have established several channels that fund sponsors can use, such as expedited approvals of cryptocurrencies whose futures markets are regulated by the CFTC for at least six months. Stradley Ronon attorney Steve Feinour remarked that a majority of the applicants would probably use that avenue.
As of now, the Dogecoin ETF has established a precedent shared by no other asset, as it puts memecoin investment in the official list of Wall Street securities and pushes the boundaries of crypto finance in the U.S.
Also Read: Ripple Eyes ETF, SWIFT Rumors Push XRP Into Spotlight
