A Trump meme coin ETF is already in the works

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A Trump meme coin ETF is already in the works

A cartoon image of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump with cryptocurrency tokens pictured in front of the White House to mark his inauguration, displayed at a Coinhero store in Hong Kong, China, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.

Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A new securities filing on Tuesday revealed that an ETF issuer is already rushing to launch a fund to track the new Trump crypto token.

The proposed fund is called Rex-Osprey Trump ETF. According to the document, the fund could invest in the Trump token at least partially through a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. There is no ticker or fee listed in the filing.

The nature of the filing and the preliminary details contained therein suggest that the fund would operate legally differently than the popular Bitcoin ETFs. That could help the fund launch more quickly, but it could also increase the likelihood that regulators will reject the proposal.

The filing takes place on Tuesday on the first business day following last Friday's launch of the Trump coin, which is based on the Solana platform. The token has been very volatile, but appears to have a notional value in the billions to the Trump family.

The website for the token, which Trump himself shared on social media, states that the Trump coin is intended to be “an expression of support” and not “an investment opportunity.”

The proposed Rex-Osprey Trump ETF is one of many new crypto ETF applications in recent days. The same fund series documents for the Trump ETF also listed proposals for funds that follow the two major crypto coins – Bitcoin and Ether – and the secondary coins Solana and XRP, as well as the meme coins Bonk and Doge.

Late Friday, proposals were received for several other funds, including the multi-token CoinShares Digital Asset ETF and a range of leveraged and inverse ProShares XRP funds.

The crypto ETFs currently marketed in the US only track Bitcoin and Ether or the futures contracts for these tokens. Crypto products have been viewed with skepticism by former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, but both the ETF and crypto industries expect a broader range of funds could be launched under the Trump administration.

Acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda announced on Tuesday that the SEC has launched a “crypto task force” to help develop a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets.