Summary
- Bitwise is set to close its Dogecoin ETF just shy of a year after its launch in November 2025.
- As of September 8, BWOW had approximately $722,000 in net assets.
- Shareholders will receive cash based on their shares' net asset value as of October 21.
Bitwise, a firm specializing in cryptocurrency assets, is discontinuing its Dogecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) less than a year after its inception, with the fund currently managing around $722,000 in assets.
On Thursday, Bitwise announced the decision to liquidate BWOW, indicating that October 14 would be its last trading day on NYSE Arca.
“On October 22, 2026, remaining shareholders will receive cash equal to the net asset value of their shares as of October 21, 2026,” the company stated. “No action is required from shareholders during this process.”
According to Bitwise, this move aims to “optimize its product offerings to better align with changing investor requirements.”
ETFs allow investors to buy and sell shares on stock exchanges to gain exposure to various assets, including stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrencies, without having to own the assets directly.
The BWOW fund currently holds approximately 8.2 million DOGE, valued at around $688,000, as per the fund's website. Bitwise did not specify this as a contributing factor to the fund's closure.
The fund was launched on November 26, 2025, providing investors with a means to invest in Dogecoin through brokerage accounts without needing to purchase and store the cryptocurrency themselves. Its planned closure will occur just under 11 months after the launch.
Bitwise initiated the process of creating the fund in early 2025, registering a Dogecoin ETF entity in Delaware that January. In November, Bitwise removed a delay amendment from its SEC registration, allowing the filing to become effective within 20 days unless the SEC intervened.
The Dogecoin ETF was launched amidst a surge of crypto fund introductions, as issuers began to diversify beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum to include various other tokens. Notably, Grayscale had also launched its Dogecoin and XRP ETFs shortly before.
At the time of BWOW’s launch, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley remarked on Dogecoin's enduring presence and the strong demand from holders for an exchange-traded product. “Bitwise is launching BWOW because many DOGE holders, a community that numbers in the millions, want the benefit that comes from getting exposure to crypto in an ETP format, and we believe they should have it,” Horsley stated then.