Dogecoin (DOGE) surged 8% over the past 24 hours, outpacing Bitcoin and Ethereum, following the launch of the first U.S. spot DOGE exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The fund, called DOJE, began trading Thursday morning on the Cboe BZX exchange in Chicago and quickly exceeded expectations, recording nearly $6 million in trading volume within its first hour.
The ETF is issued through a collaboration between REX Shares and Osprey Funds, two companies that have focused heavily on crypto-related investment products.
Their prospectus, filed last week, outlined a strategy for the fund to hold Dogecoin directly, with the possibility of investing in other crypto ETFs and derivatives.
Unlike most crypto ETFs structured under the Securities Act of 1933, DOJE was registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. This legal framework regulates pooled investment funds and allows for more actively managed approaches.
The ETF offers exposure to Dogecoin through a wholly owned subsidiary registered in the Cayman Islands, creating a distinct legal structure compared to traditional spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas initially estimated that DOJE would attract around $2.5 million in volume on its first day. Instead, it more than doubled that figure within the opening session.
“My over/under got destroyed in the first hour of trading as DOJE already posted nearly $6M in volume,” Balchunas noted on X, calling the early performance “shockingly solid.”
For context, most new ETFs record less than $1 million in trading volume during their debuts.
The launch of DOJE coincided with the rollout of the first U.S. spot XRP ETF, XRPR, also managed by REX and Osprey. XRPR reached $24 million in trading volume within two hours, five times higher than XRP futures ETFs saw during their initial sessions.
Both ETFs mark milestones in bringing alternative crypto assets into regulated U.S. investment markets.
Dogecoin’s inclusion as the centerpiece of a U.S. ETF represents a significant step for a cryptocurrency often dismissed as a meme coin.
Analysts said DOJE’s early success highlights growing institutional interest in assets once thought to be favored only by retail traders.
Additional Dogecoin ETFs could soon follow. Grayscale and Bitwise have filed proposals under the Securities Act of 1933, a route more commonly used by spot Bitcoin and Ethereum funds.
Analysts expect decisions on those applications by October 17, with several predicting approvals are highly likely.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin’s price momentum may also be receiving support from new corporate adoption.
CleanCore Solutions, a publicly traded cleaning and disinfecting company, announced earlier this week that it had accumulated an additional 100 million DOGE, bringing its total holdings to 600 million DOGE, valued at roughly $170 million.
CleanCore has partnered with the Dogecoin Foundation’s commercial arm, the House of Doge, and has outlined long-term plans to accumulate up to 5% of Dogecoin’s circulating supply, equivalent to about 7.5 billion DOGE, or $2.1 billion at current prices.
At press time, Dogecoin was trading at $0.286, up nearly 34% over the past month.
The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 marked a turning point for digital asset markets.
After years of resistance and a court battle with Grayscale, the U.S. SEC relented, opening the door to mainstream adoption.
Since then, more than $57 billion has poured into spot Bitcoin ETFs, according to SoSoValue. Ethereum followed in July 2024, with BlackRock and rivals launching funds tied to the second-largest cryptocurrency.
A year later, Rex Financial and Osprey Funds expanded the market further with the first Solana ETF.
Now, the SEC has taken another decisive step. On Wednesday, the regulator approved new listing standards for major U.S. exchanges, including Nasdaq, Cboe BZX, and NYSE Arca.
The move removes the need for case-by-case reviews and sets clear rules for commodity-based trust shares, clearing the way for a broader range of spot crypto ETFs.
Under the new framework, the path from filing to launch could shrink to as little as 75 days, compared with up to 240 days previously.
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart described the rules as the “crypto ETP framework we’ve been waiting for,” predicting a wave of new funds. Analysts expect Solana and XRP ETFs to be among the first to benefit.
