Veteran fund analyst Eric Balchunas expressed shock at the extraordinary debut of the Rex Shares-Osprey Dogecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The first ETF in the U.S. tied to a meme coin, it began trading under the ticker “DOJE” on CBOE on Sep. 18 and posted around $6 million in trading volume within an hour of its launch.
Related: What are meme coins? Explained
Ahead of the ETF’s launch today, Balchunas wrote on X that it would record $2.5 million on its first day. The figure is respectable, but “nothing too special,” he added.
The Dogecoin ETF’s approval under the Investment Company Act of 1940 rather than the Securities Act of 1933 — and the fact that it isn’t backed by a “big boy issuer” — could limit investor interest unlike earlier crypto ETF debuts, he cautioned.
However, the Dogecoin ETF recorded a trading volume of $5.8 million within an hour of its launch, shocking the veteran analyst.
“My over/under got destroyed in the first hour of trading as $DOJE already posting nearly $6m in volume.”
Balchunas conceded the debut is “shockingly solid” because most ETFs trade under $1 million on their first days of trading.
DOJE is the first ETF to be launched in the U.S. that is linked to a meme coin. Balchunas earlier went on to say that it would be the first ETF to hold something without any utility. Despite criticism from the Dogecoin community on X, he stuck to his guns and said he wasn’t judging it but fans should admit that meme coins are for “fun and speculation.”
Well, Balchunas isn’t entirely wrong and those who are aware of the meme coin phenomenon would admit that.
The newly launched Rex Shares XRP ETF (XRPP) has posted $24 million in trading volume within its first 90 minutes, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
Balchunas shared his surprise at the strong debut, writing on X (formerly Twitter):
“SEMI-SHOCK: Rex XRP ETF $XRPP is already at $24m in volume. That is way more than I would have thought. For context it’s 5x more than any of the XRP futures ETFs did on Day One and it’s only been 90min.”
A meme coin, as the name suggests, is nothing but a parody of what are considered mainstream and serious cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is the seriousness of the dream of the crypto entrepreneurs to disrupt Wall Street that invited the mockery of meme coin creators.
For instance, the first meme coin, Dogecoin, is the parody of the first decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
However, it seems that the retail embrace of both these categories of virtual assets has gone against conventional wisdom that crypto won’t work out. Whether a coin offers utility or not, a demand for its exposure will lead to the creation of funds like DOJE.
As per Kraken, Dogecoin was trading at $0.2825, up more than 6% in 24 hours.
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Sep 18, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.