Grayscale launches Dogecoin investment fund

Grayscale Investments has launched an investment fund for Dogecoin ( DOGE ), the most popular memecoin by market cap, the asset manager said on Jan. 31.

Grayscale Dogecoin Trust offers investors exposure to “the native coin of the Dogecoin network, an open-source peer-to-peer digital currency originally derived from Litecoin, which itself originated from Bitcoin,” Grayscale said . The trust is only available to institutional investors.

Dogecoin operates on a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network similar to Bitcoin’s but with less computationally intensive transaction verifications and no upper limit on the total DOGE supply.

“Dogecoin has matured into a potentially powerful tool for promoting financial accessibility,” Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale’s head of product and research, said in a statement.

Dogecoin’s famous Shiba Inu meme. Source: Dogecoin.com

Related: Grayscale launches Bitcoin Miners ETF to offer BTC mining exposure

Memecoin frenzy

The new fund comes amid a frenzy of interest in memecoins, including among traditional asset managers.

On Jan. 18, US President Donald Trump’s advisory team launched the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin on the Solana network ahead of Trump’s presidential inauguration.

The TRUMP launch sparked a frenzy among investors, bringing so much activity to Solana that the network suffered bouts of congestion for days. 

On Jan. 21, asset managers Osprey Funds and REX Shares filed to launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for memecoins including DOGE, TRUMP and Bonk ( BONK ).

Grayscale’s single-asset crypto products. Source: Grayscale

Expanding the suite of crypto funds

For Grayscale, the new DOGE fund adds to its suite of single-asset crypto investment products.

In December, Grayscale launched two new investment funds for Lido and Optimism’s governance tokens — LDO ( LDO ) and OP ( OP) , respectively.

In October, it launched an investment fund for Aave’s governance token , AAVE ( AAVE) . It also added around 35 altcoins — including Worldcoin ( WLD ), Pyth ( PYTH ) and Rune ( RUNE ) — to a list of assets that are “under consideration” for future investment products. 

In August, Grayscale launched three trusts to invest in the native protocol tokens of Sky (previously MakerDAO), Bittensor and Sui.

Grayscale is the world’s largest crypto fund manager by assets under management, with nearly $35 billion in AUM as of December.

It is best known for its Bitcoin ( BTC ) and Ether ( ETH ) exchange-traded funds, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE).

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