Dogecoin’s Wall Street glow-up continues with launch of Grayscale Dogecoin ETF

Dogecoin's journey from a fun memecoin to gaining popularity from the likes of Elon Musk is cementing itself into the mainstream as Grayscale rolls out an exchange-traded fund tracking the coin.

On Monday, Grayscale debuted its Grayscale Dogecoin Trust ETF, with the ticker symbol GDOG, and will trade on NYSE Arca. The Grayscale Dogecoin Trust was first launched as a private placement in January before being converted. 

"Dogecoin has evolved from internet culture to real world utility, and that maturation aligns with our objective to make digital assets more accessible to a greater number of investors," said Krista Lynch, senior vice president, ETF Capital Markets at Grayscale, in a statement.

Dogecoin is the 10th largest crypto by market capitalization at $21.6 billion, according to The Block's price page. The coin started as a meme featuring the Shiba Inu dog that later caught Musk's attention as the billionaire regularly posted about the memecoin.

In a class action lawsuit filed in 2022, Musk was accused of orchestrating a pyramid scheme by hyping the coin in a class action lawsuit following social media post about the memecoin. That lawsuit was later dismissed in 2024. Later, in an apparent nod to the memecoin, Musk, along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, previously led the Department of Government Efficience, or DOGE. The coin traded north of $0.45 shortly after last year's election but has fallen all the way back to under $0.15 a share.

Grayscale's Dogecoin ETF is now the second to list in the U.S. following the launch of the REX-Osprey DOGE ETF in September. That one took a different approach since it is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 — a federal law that regulates investment funds that pool capital from investors to pursue a common investment strategy. That approach allows funds to be actively managed.

Several crypto ETFs have been listed over the past year, including more recently ETFs tracking Litecoin HBAR, XRP, and SOL. Those were approved while the government was shut down, as firms then leaned on guidance the Securities and Exchange Commission released shortly into the shutdown that clarified procedures for firms seeking to go public without needing the agency's explicit sign-off. Under that regulatory route, the ETF also has to meet specific listing standards, which were approved by the SEC in September.