Canary Capital Files for PEPE Spot ETF with SEC

Canary Capital Group LLC has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed exchange-traded fund that would provide direct exposure to the spot price of PEPE, a popular meme-based cryptocurrency. The submission, made on April 8, marks the firm's latest effort to bring niche digital assets into traditional investment products.

The filing, known as Form S1, outlines the Canary PEPE ETF, which would hold actual PEPE tokens as its primary asset. According to the document, the fund's objective is to track the price of PEPE while allowing investors to access the token through standard brokerage accounts, avoiding the complexities of direct ownership such as managing digital wallets. The trust would issue shares in baskets of 10,000 and value its holdings daily at 4 p.m. Eastern time using a benchmark derived from major trading venues. Up to 5 percent of assets could initially be held in ether to cover transaction fees on the Ethereum network, where PEPE operates as an ERC-20 token.

PEPE launched in April 2023 with a total supply exceeding 420 trillion tokens and no intrinsic utility, such as governance or staking features. At the time of...