Asset manager Canary Capital has filed to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Pengu (PENGU), the governance token of the Pudgy Penguins non-fungible token (NFT) project, US regulatory filings show. 

The ETF is the latest in a slew of filings for new US investment products tied to spot cryptocurrencies, including altcoins and memecoins. 

According to the filing, the ETF is intended to hold spot PENGU as well as various Pudgy Penguins NFTs. It would be the first US ETF to hold NFTs if approved. 

Additionally, “[t]he Trust will also hold other digital assets, such as SOL and ETH, that are necessary or incidental to the purchase, sale and transfer of the Trust’s PENGU and Pudgy Penguins NFTs,” the filing said. 

Launched in December, PUDGY has a roughly $438-million market capitalization as of March 20, according to CoinGecko.

On March 18, Canary filed to list the first US ETF holding Sui (SUI), the native token of the Sui layer-1 blockchain network.

Pudgy Penguins is among the most popular NFT brands. Source: Cointelegraph

Related: Canary Capital proposes first Sui ETF in US SEC filing

Policy reversal

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has acknowledged dozens of filings for new crypto investment products since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20. 

They include filings for proposed ETFs for native L1 tokens such as Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP), as well as for memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Official Trump (TRUMP). 

Some industry analysts are skeptical that ETFs holding non-core cryptocurrencies will see a meaningful uptake among traditional investors. 

“Pengu ETF announced. Price barely goes up. New ETFs for crypto assets have become an irrelevant joke,” crypto researcher Alex Krüger said in a March 20 post on the X platform. “Most crypto ETFs will fail to attract AUM and cost issuers money.”

Since starting his second presidential term, Trump has reversed the US government’s stance on digital assets, promising to make America “the world’s crypto capital.” 

Under his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden, US regulatory agencies brought upward of 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms.

On March 20, asset manager Volatility Shares launched two Solana futures ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT). 

They use financial derivatives to track SOL’s performance with one- and two-time leverage, respectively. Spot SOL ETFs are still awaiting regulatory approval. 

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