Canary Capital Seeks Listing of Spot Pepe ETF

U.S. asset manager Canary Capital is seeking to list a spot exchange-traded fund based on the memecoin Pepe.

According to a filing on Oct. 2, Canary submitted an amended S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the Canary Pepe ETF. The fund is set to list on Cboe BZX, an exchange operated by Cboe Global Markets. The filing continues the launch process after the firm submitted its initial registration statement in April.

The product is a spot ETF structured as a trust that would hold Pepe directly. Its objective is to reflect Pepe's price performance after deducting operating expenses and other liabilities. If listed, investors would be able to gain exposure to the token through the stock market without buying Pepe directly on a crypto exchange or storing it in a separate wallet.

The fund will use CoinDesk's Pepe Benchmark Rate 60 Minute New York to calculate net asset value, or NAV. That benchmark sets the reference price for valuing the ETF's holdings. Because fees and other costs will be deducted, the fund's returns will not exactly match Pepe's price moves.

Pepe is an Ethereum-based memecoin launched in 2023 and based on the internet-famous frog character of the same name. Its price is influenced more by online visibility and community interest than by technological utility. In its initial filing, Canary warned that Pepe's price and the ETF's value could decline sharply if market interest fades or social-media sentiment shifts.