A flood of new crypto fund proposals is poised to hit the market, with 155 exchange-traded product filings waiting for regulatory approval. According to industry data from October 21, this wave could introduce over 200 new funds tracking 35 different digital assets within the next year.
The Coming Wave of Crypto Funds
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, shared a list of proposed funds on X, describing the growing number of filings as a “total land rush,” by financial firms. The list includes popular assets like Solana (SOL) and Bitcoin (BTC), which currently lead the pack with 23 filings each, followed closely by Ripple’s XRP with 20 and Ethereum (ETH) with 16.
There are also multiple applications for products tracking Litecoin (LTC) with five, Dogecoin (DOGE), Avalanche (AVAX), Polkadot (DOT), each with three, and even politically-themed assets like the Official TRUMP meme coin, which boasts two ETF filings.
However, this fast growth could present a challenge for traditional investors. Nate Geraci, co-founder of the ETF Institute, noted that the number of individual tokens could be too much to handle.
“No way tradfi investors ready to navigate all of these single tokens,” he noted.
He says that most mainstream investors will probably prefer a “shotgun approach,” which means using diversified funds that spread risk across many cryptocurrencies, similar to a stock market index fund.
“*Highly bullish* on index-based & actively managed crypto ETFs,” tweeted the expert.
A Shift in Strategy and Strong Current Demand
This push for more variety comes at a time when the first batch of crypto ETFs are showing that the market is healthy. On October 21, spot Bitcoin ETFs brought in $477 million in new investments, and spot Ethereum products brought in $142 million according to data from SoSoValue.
Meanwhile, some newly launched altcoin ETFs are already showing encouraging results. The REX-Osprey XRP and DOGE ETFs, which debuted in September, posted impressive first-day volumes of $24 million and $6 million respectively, far surpassing analysts’ forecasts.
The renewed interest in crypto ETFs also comes at a time when a lot of big Bitcoin investors are moving their money into such products. These whales are reportedly using a process that allows them to swap their actual Bitcoin for shares in an ETF without triggering a tax bill. BlackRock is said to have handled over $3 billion of these conversions.
Even though the pipeline is full, it’s still not clear when many of these new funds will get their final approval, with external factors such as the ongoing U.S. government shutdown causing delays.