Osprey, Rex file to list ETFs tracking President Trump's memecoin, XRP, BONK and other tokens

Osprey Funds and Rex Shares are looking for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's sign-off for several proposals for exchange-traded funds based on TRUMP, DOGE and other memecoins.

The firms filed a registration statement for seven separate funds a day after President Donald Trump's inauguration and days after Trump launched a TRUMP memecoin that garnered billions of dollars of investments.

"REX-OspreyTM TRUMP ETF (the 'Fund') seeks investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to the performance of Trump ('TRUMP' or the 'Reference Asset')," according to a registration statement filed on Tuesday. That filing also included proposals for an Ethereum ETF, Bitcoin ETF, SOL ETF, XRP ETF and BONK ETF.

Tuesday's registration statement signals expectations from the crypto industry that the Trump administration will be friendlier to digital assets. Trump tapped crypto-friendly former regulator Paul Atkins to lead the SEC and has promised to  stop "Joe Biden's crusade to crush crypto" by ensuring the future of crypto will not be "driven overseas," among other promises.

The products were filed under the Investment Company Act of 1940, similar to crypto futures ETFs, said Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart in a post on X.

"They'll hold a combo of derivatives, the assets, and a cayman subsidiary which will hold the assets," Seyffart said. "This looks similar to a playbook issuers use in  the commodity ETF world to avoid K-1's but idk."

“This seems to me like the start of ETF issuers pushing the envelope with a new SEC administration to see what they can get through,” Seyffart said in a statement sent to The Block.

Tuesday’s fund proposals are different from others, Seyffart said.

“… these funds are also structured in a unique and novel way to allow them to file as a 1940 act,” he said. “It will be interesting to see how the SEC handles both this structure and some of the more controversial assets like the memecoins. I mean TRUMP has only existed for a few days.”

Rex Shares and Osprey Funds did not respond to a request for comment.

Update: Jan. 21, 3:45 p.m. UTC to include comments from Seyffart