The growth of cryptocurrency-focused ETFs is expected to accelerate this year, with one meme singled out as a likely candidate to lead the charge.

“In 2025, the underlying asset manager will launch an exchange-traded meme coin...our money is in DOGE,” cryptocurrency trading firm Wintermute wrote in a report on Friday.

Traditional financial institutions have shown notable interest in meme trading in the past year, using Solana-based tokens Dujoyvat (WIF), Bonk (Bonk), and points (points) resulting in Wintermute's over-the-counter (OTC) market share growing from 0.3% in 2023 to 5.1% in 2024.

No asset manager has applied for a place yet Dogecoin ETF in the US, but Jake Ostrovskis, an over-the-counter trader at Wintermute, stood by the company's outlook. However, he admitted that Wintemute's invitation was intended to be somewhat sarcastic.

“Volume ultimately drives interest, which ultimately leads to indexing,” he said. “If the meme sector continues, you can imagine where it is going, and the most liquid name within that (group) is DOGE.”

Dogecoin was created in 2013 as a joke, to emulate the industry with its apparent lack of utility.

Since then, it has been popularity By CTO Elon Musk. Memes, in general, have become one of the hottest crypto trends — even if they trade on little more than sentiment and are as volatile as cryptocurrencies.

Among traditional financial institutions, OTC spot volumes increased by 210% from 2023 to 2024, according to the report. Overall, meme coins are becoming more popular, accounting for 16% of Wintermute's OTC volumes in 2024 compared to 7% in 2023.

OTC trading desks are typically exploited by financial institutions looking to execute large transactions. In the context of cryptocurrencies, they can often provide traders with better prices by operating on multiple exchanges rather than just one.

As Ostrovskis described, a portion of Wintermute's counterparties come from a traditional financial background. Fragmentation of the cryptocurrency market can be a headache, he said, with “so many different tokens and so many different chains.”

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu respectively accounted for 53.6% and 34.6% of Wintermute's OTC trading volumes in 2024, however other coins saw an uptick in popularity.

Among the most widespread were Duguivat and Pipecoin (PEPE), which saw volumes increase to 1.4% and 9%, respectively.

However, Ostrovskis said changing narratives within cryptocurrencies could impact OTC trading volumes, with Wintermute counterparties becoming particularly interested in trading meme coins last March and the “AI angle” at the end of the year.

“It gets a lot of attention when it's hot,” he said. “But right now, it’s getting really cold.”

Modified by Sebastian Sinclair