Canary Capital files for spot PEPE exchange-traded fund in the United States
The asset manager seeks approval for a PEPE-tracking ETF even as the memecoin remains down 85% from its all-time high reached in December 2024.
Investment management company Canary Capital has submitted an application to introduce a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on the PEPE memecoin.
Canary submitted Form S-1 documentation for the CANARY PEPE ETF to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The proposed investment vehicle would mirror Pepe's (PEPE) market performance, with a designated custodian maintaining control of the trust's entire PEPE holdings.
The filing specified that the ETF trust reserves the right to maintain as much as 5% of its total assets in Ether (ETH) for the purpose of covering transaction costs on the Ethereum blockchain.
The investment firm Canary Capital, which currently manages multiple cryptocurrency ETFs following XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Hedera (HBAR) and Sei (SEI), has submitted applications for various specialized crypto ETF offerings in the past several months.
Canary Capital submitted documentation in November 2025 seeking to introduce an ETF that would follow the valuation of Mog Coin, a memecoin positioned as the 353rd-biggest cryptocurrency token measured by market capitalization, significantly trailing PEPE, which holds the 45th position.
The memecoin PEPE, which draws inspiration from Pepe the Frog, built substantial momentum across social media platforms throughout 2024. The digital asset represents approximately 9% of Dogecoin's (DOGE) market capitalization, the leading memecoin by market value.
When Grayscale's Dogecoin ETF launched in November, it significantly underperformed early trading volume projections. At the time of launch, ETF analyst Eric Balchunas had forecast that the ETFs would achieve a minimum of $12 million in trading volume. Instead, the ETF recorded only $1.4 million during its inaugural trading day.
The ETF application arrives even though the Pepe token currently trades nearly 85% beneath its all-time peak of $0.00002368 recorded in December 2024, based on CoinMarketCap data.
Data from Etherscan indicates that PEPE currently has 513,392 token holders. Canary Capital cautioned potential investors regarding the "highly concentrated" nature of token ownership. "As of January 2026, the ten largest PEPE wallet addresses collectively held approximately 41% of the total circulating supply," the filing said.
Altcoin season may hinge on more ETFs launching
Market analysts have stated in the past that the upcoming altcoin market cycle could depend heavily on additional crypto ETFs being introduced further along the risk spectrum.
Nevertheless, Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at investment firm Bitwise, stated in March that conventional altcoin cycles have concluded, and that institutional market participants are concentrating on yield-generating digital instruments or cryptocurrency assets that generate revenue.
In December, Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at Sygnum Bank, informed Cointelegraph that the volume of fresh ETF applications is anticipated to increase dramatically in 2026, propelled by cryptocurrency regulations in the United States.
"On the basis of the potential passing of the Clarity Act, we would expect that new filings continue to go beyond BTC and ETH," Dori said.
That said, the United States CLARITY Act has not advanced through the legislative process as rapidly as market participants had anticipated, primarily because of continued disputes regarding stablecoin yields.
The filing from Canary contained a warning that regulatory frameworks in the United States governing the utilization of Pepe and the Ethereum network "continues to evolve," which could affect Pepe's usage and overall market demand.