Canary Capital submits application for US-based spot PEPE ETF

Q: What is the purpose of the CANARY PEPE ETF submitted by Canary Capital?

The CANARY PEPE ETF aims to track the performance of the PEPE memecoin.

Q: How much of the CANARY PEPE ETF's assets will be held in Ether?

The ETF may hold up to 5% of its assets in Ether to cover transaction fees on the Ethereum network.

Q: When did Canary Capital file the application for the PEPE ETF with the SEC?

Canary Capital filed the application for the PEPE ETF on Wednesday.

Asset management firm Canary Capital is looking to launch a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) tied to the PEPE memecoin.

On Wednesday, Canary filed a Form S-1 for the CANARY PEPE ETF with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The ETF would track the performance of Pepe (PEPE), with all of the trust’s PEPE held by a custodian.

It noted that the ETF trust may hold up to 5% of the trust’s assets in Ether (ETH) to pay the transaction fees on the Ethereum network.

Cryptocurrencies, Adoption, United States, Pepe, ETF

Pepe is up 6.06% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Canary Capital, which also offers several other crypto ETFs tracking XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Hedera (HBAR) and Sei (SEI), has filed for several other niche crypto ETF products in recent months.

In November 2025, Canary Capital filed to launch an ETF tracking the price of a memecoin called Mog Coin, the 353rd-largest crypto token by market cap, far behind PEPE, which is ranked 45th.

PEPE, a memecoin based on Pepe the Frog, gained traction on social media in 2024. The token is roughly 9% the size of the largest memecoin by market cap, Dogecoin (DOGE).

Grayscale’s Dogecoin ETF made its debut in November but fell well short of initial volume expectations. ETF analyst Eric Balchunas predicted at the time that the ETFs would get at least $12 million in volume. However, the ETF only saw $1.4 million on its first day.

The proposed ETF also comes despite the Pepe token, which is down almost 85% from its December 2024 all-time high of $0.00002368, according to CoinMarketCap.

There are currently 513,392 holders of the PEPE, according to Etherscan data. Canary Capital warned investors that ownership of the token is “highly concentrated.” “As of January 2026, the ten largest PEPE wallet addresses collectively held approximately 41% of the total circulating supply,” the filing said.

Altcoin season may hinge on more ETFs launching

Analysts have previously said that the next altcoin cycle may hinge on more crypto ETFs launching further down the risk curve.

However, Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at investment firm Bitwise, said in March that traditional altcoin cycles are over, and that institutional investors are focused on yield-bearing digital instruments or crypto assets that capture revenue.

Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at Sygnum Bank, told Cointelegraph in December that the number of new ETF filings is expected to surge in 2026, driven by US crypto regulations.

“On the basis of the potential passing of the Clarity Act, we would expect that new filings continue to go beyond BTC and ETH,” Dori said.

However, the US CLARITY Act has not passed as quickly as industry participants had hoped, largely due to an ongoing disagreement over stablecoin yields.

Canary’s filing warned that regulations in the US for the use of Pepe and the Ethereum network “continues to evolve,” which may impact the use of Pepe and its demand.

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