Grayscale launches Dogecoin investment fund

Grayscale Investments, the world's largest crypto fund manager, has introduced an investment fund for Dogecoin (DOGE), the prominent memecoin.

The Grayscale Dogecoin Trust provides exposure to "the native coin of the Dogecoin network, an open-source peer-to-peer digital currency derived from Litecoin, which originated from Bitcoin," Grayscale stated. The trust is exclusively available to institutional investors.

Dogecoin utilizes a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network comparable to Bitcoin, but with less demanding transaction verifications and an unlimited DOGE supply.

"Dogecoin has developed into a potentially impactful instrument for fostering financial inclusivity," said Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale's head of product and research.

The new fund emerges amidst heightened interest in memecoins, including from traditional asset managers.

On January 18, the advisory team for former US President Donald Trump launched the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin on the Solana network ahead of Trump's presidential inauguration.

The TRUMP launch triggered widespread investor interest, leading to significant activity on Solana, which resulted in temporary network congestion.

On January 21, asset managers Osprey Funds and REX Shares filed applications to offer exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for memecoins such as DOGE, TRUMP, and Bonk (BONK).

Grayscale's new DOGE fund expands its portfolio of single-asset crypto investment products.

In December, Grayscale launched funds for Lido and Optimism's governance tokens, LDO (LDO) and OP (OP), respectively.

In October, it introduced a fund for Aave's governance token, AAVE (AAVE). Grayscale also included around 35 altcoins, including Worldcoin (WLD), Pyth (PYTH), and Rune (RUNE), in a list of assets "under consideration" for future investment products.

In August, Grayscale established three trusts for investments in the native protocol tokens of Sky (previously MakerDAO), Bittensor, and Sui.

Grayscale is the world's largest crypto fund manager by assets under management, with approximately $35 billion as of December.

The company is renowned for its Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE).