The exchange-traded product market for meme cryptocurrencies faces significant cooling, evidenced by the collapse in activity for the Dogecoin ETF in the United States. According to recent data provided by analytics platform SoSoValue, the total value traded for these funds fell on Monday to its lowest point since launch, registering barely $142,000. This decline marks a sharp retreat from late November, when daily volumes exceeded 3.23 million dollars, indicating a rapid loss of momentum following the initial euphoria of its debut in the regulated market.
Hard data reveals a fascinating discrepancy between the institutional investment vehicle and the underlying asset in the spot market. While the Dogecoin ETF struggles to attract capital, CoinGecko reported that DOGE recorded over $1.1 billion in direct trading volume in the last 24 hours. This abysmal difference suggests that the asset’s real liquidity remains concentrated on traditional cryptocurrency exchanges, where retail traders and “whales” prefer to interact directly with the token rather than using regulated financial wrappers.
Why do investors prefer direct purchase over regulated products?
This phenomenon highlights a structural challenge for niche funds, as Grayscale’s Dogecoin ETF debuted in November well below initial volume expectations. ETF analyst Eric Balchunas had predicted a volume of at least $12 million, but reality showed just 1.4 million on the first day. On the other hand, institutional capital attention remains firmly anchored in sector giants, leaving little room for meme-based products to compete for market share in the traditional financial environment.
Likewise, the performance gap widens when comparing these figures with market leaders during the December 8 session. Bitcoin ETFs recorded a traded value of $3.1 billion, while Ether-based products reached $1.3 billion. Even other alternative assets like Solana and XRP far outperformed the Dogecoin ETF, with volumes of 22 million and 21 million respectively, demonstrating that institutional appetite leans toward projects with more robust infrastructure fundamentals or clearer use cases.
The landscape suggests that traders are using regulated vehicles selectively, prioritizing security for reserve assets like Bitcoin. Thus, it is likely that liquidity for speculative assets like DOGE will continue to reside outside Wall Street. The future of these products will depend on whether they manage to capture a new investor base less native to crypto, or if they will be relegated to being low-liquidity instruments while the direct market continues to dictate true price action.
