Bitwise CEO Calls Dogecoin ETF Shutdown ‘Tragic’

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley called the failure of the firm’s spot Dogecoin ETF (NYSE:BWOW) "tragic" as the fund prepares to end trading after Oct. 14, less than a year after its November 2025 launch.

During an interview with The Block at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia on Thursday, Horsley said, "I like Dogecoin, I own Dogecoin." He added that the token "went nowhere as an ETF."

BWOW Assets Shrink Amid $1.23M Outflows

A spot ETF is a fund that holds the underlying token and trades like a stock, so investors get price exposure through a regular brokerage account without owning or storing the coins. BWOW drew little investor money. SoSoValue data showed net assets of about $684,060 as of Oct. 8, with cumulative net outflows of $1.23 million.

Horsley said the result reveals a "delta," or gap, between ETF buyers and crypto brokerage app users. "The users of ETFs just didn’t want to put money into Dogecoin, but that may change over time," he told The Block.

Demand was stronger for the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (NYSE:BSOL), which has a market capitalization of about $899.9 million, according to Coinbase data. Horsley said its staking feature, which earns network rewards, helped. But he said the assets mainly reflect a bet on Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) as tokenization and stablecoins move onchain.