It was supposed to start with a bang, but instead it got a cold response. On its very first day of trading, the new Grayscale Dogecoin ETF (a fund that lets regular investors buy Dogecoin through their normal stock accounts) saw not a single new dollar going into the actual fund. People traded only a tiny $1.41 million worth of the GDOG ETF back and forth.
In other words, before it started trading on Monday, Grayscale had to put in a little starter money themselves to create the very first GDOG ETF shares. Those shares went straight to the big banks, hit NYSE Arca, and people started buying/selling them on day one (this is the $1.41 million volume). But no regular investor brought in fresh cash to make new shares that day, so inflows stayed at $0.
In comparison, when Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs were first launched, people poured in hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars right away.
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The trading of the GDOG ETF started on Monday on NYSE Arca, a part of the New York Stock Exchange Group. Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg analyst, had predicted about $12 million in the first-day activity.
What Went Wrong
The hype around Dogecoin’s Wall Street entry was partly due to its popularity and endorsements from people like Elon Musk. However, factors like regulatory tightening on altcoins, stiff competition from main coins, and other economic factors influencing the world economy led to the damp response.
Social media buzz on X echoes this, with users noting the “slow start” and saying it is in the early days. Longer-term adoption could grow if DOGE’s utility in payments and tipping expands.
Grayscale Dodge ETF is not the only one in the market. Today, a second Dogecoin ETF hits the market—this one from Bitwise, with the ticker BWOW. It’s also listed on NYSE Arca and works the same way: one can buy and sell Dogecoin through a regular brokerage account, and no crypto wallet is needed.
