Canary Capital Files to List Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) Holding Pengu (PENGU), the Governance Token of the Pudgy Penguins NFT Project

Asset manager Canary Capital has filed to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Pengu (PENGU), the governance token of the Pudgy Penguins non-fungible token (NFT) project

Asset manager Canary Capital has filed to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Pengu (PENGU), the governance token of the Pudgy Penguins non-fungible token (NFT) project, US regulatory filings show.

The ETF is the latest in a slew of filings for new US investment products linked to spot cryptocurrencies, including altcoins and memecoins.

According to the filing, the ETF is designed to hold both PENGU and various Pudgy Penguins NFTs. It would be the first US ETF to hold NFTs if approved.

“The Trust will also hold other digital assets, such as SOL and ETH, that are necessary or incidental to the purchase, sale and transfer of the Trust’s PENGU and Pudgy Penguins NFTs,” the filing said.

Launched in December, PUDGY has a roughly $438-million market capitalization as of March 20, according to CoinGecko.

On March 18, Canary filed to launch the first US ETF holding Sui (SUI), the native token of the Sui layer-1 blockchain network.

Policy shift

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has acknowledged dozens of filings for new crypto investment products since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.

They include filings for proposed ETFs for L1 tokens such as Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP), as well as for memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Official Trump (TRUMP).

Some industry analysts are skeptical that ETFs holding non-core cryptocurrencies will see meaningful interest from traditional investors.

“Pengu ETF announced. Price barely goes up. New ETFs have become an irrelevant joke,” crypto researcher Alex Krüger said in a March 20 post on the X platform. “Most crypto ETFs will fail to attract AUM and cost issuers money.”

Since starting his second presidential term, Trump has reversed the US government’s stance on digital assets, promising to make America “the world’s crypto capital.”

During the second presidential term of his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden, US regulatory agencies brought more than 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms.

On March 20, asset manager Volatility Shares launched two Solana futures ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT).

They use financial derivatives to track SOL’s performance with one- and two-time leverage, respectively. Spot SOL ETFs are still pending regulatory approval.