Bitwise Dogecoin ETF Shuts Down After Weak Demand
BWOW is being liquidated after inflows into U.S. DOGE funds lagged behind XRP and Solana. Bitwise is adjusting its lineup as altcoin ETFs do not automatically gain traction.
Key Takeaways
- Bitwise is shutting down its Dogecoin ETF BWOW after less than a year because of weak demand and low assets under management of $687,713.
- Three U.S. Dogecoin funds raised just over $12 million together in nearly 10 months, far less than XRP and Solana funds.
- The shutdown shows that altcoin ETFs do not automatically get inflows, even for well-known tokens with a large retail following.
Bitwise is shutting down its Dogecoin ETF BWOW after less than a year, while demand for DOGE funds has lagged behind that of XRP products. According to data analyzed by CoinDesk, three U.S. Dogecoin funds raised just over $12 million (€10.4 million) together in nearly 10 months, while XRP funds pulled in $12.29 million (€10.6 million) in a single day on September 9.
Weak Inflows for DOGE
The comparison shows how limited interest in Dogecoin through exchange-traded funds has remained. The three tracked DOGE funds went live last November, just like the XRP products, but the outcome is very different. Since launch, the XRP funds have collected $1.7 billion (€1.5 billion) in net inflows, while the Solana funds reached $1.36 billion (€1.2 billion), according to the analysis. That means both categories attracted more than 100 times as much capital as the DOGE group.
The Dogecoin funds also went through long stretches without new money. In 199 trading days, there were no net inflows or outflows on 166 days. That does not mean there was no trading, but it does mean new deposits and withdrawals often balanced each other out exactly. Even a price jump of more than 30% for Dogecoin in the last two weeks of August barely changed that pattern.
Bitwise Pulls BWOW
Bitwise said Thursday that it will liquidate BWOW. The fund had only $687,713 (€593,300) in assets on September 9, and trading is set to stop on October 14. On October 22, the remaining shareholders will receive cash. A spokesperson for the crypto company said Bitwise is closing the fund because its product lineup is being adjusted to match changing investor needs.
The move fits into a broader market where not every crypto ETF product automatically gets traction. The Dogecoin funds show that a well-known token and a large retail following are not always enough to spark lasting inflows. For European crypto followers, that matters because it shows that exchange-traded products around altcoins do not just depend on the token’s name, but also on what problem the fund is actually solving. Strong XRP inflows also make it clear that investors can react very differently to individual tokens within the same category.
What This Says About Altcoin ETFs
Dogecoin has been one of the easiest tokens to buy for years, but through ETFs, that accessibility has not automatically turned into new demand. Jordan Jefferson, founder of MyDoge and DogeOS, said access has never been DOGE’s biggest limitation. In his view, institutional interest only grows when there is more to build on than price gains alone, such as use cases around DOGE and on-chain financial markets.
That makes BWOW’s outcome more than just a product decision. It is also a sign that altcoin ETFs in a crowded market have to show why they exist, especially now that the broader crypto ETF market is cooling off and not every fund is profitable.
