TL;DR
- Canary Capital filed for the first U.S. ETF to include both NFTs and meme coins, featuring Pudgy Penguins to blend culture with finance.
- The fund combines $PENGU, Pudgy Penguins NFTs, Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) to enable a complete digital asset investment structure.
- It marks a major step toward regulated, creative crypto investment products and could attract institutional interest beyond traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
On March 20, Canary Capital filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a groundbreaking ETF combining $PENGU, a meme coin linked to the popular Pudgy Penguins NFT brand, with actual Pudgy Penguins NFTs. If approved, it would become the first ETF in U.S. history to directly hold NFTs, signaling a major step forward for crypto’s role in traditional finance.
But this innovative fund goes beyond meme culture. It also includes Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) as foundational assets to support token and NFT transactions. By blending meme coins, NFTs, and major blockchains, the ETF offers both retail and institutional investors a unique, diversified, and regulated gateway into two of crypto’s biggest trends.
NFTs Enter Wall Street Through the Front Door
This bold filing comes as part of a broader wave of crypto ETF approvals and applications, ranging from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Solana, XRP, and now even digital collectibles. With both Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs already trading, this move pushes into entirely new territory.
Following the news, Pudgy Penguins’ floor price surged past 10 ETH, and the $PENGU token, launched in December, now has a market cap of $438 million, according to CoinGecko. Despite skepticism, investor enthusiasm around culture-driven, internet-native assets appears remarkably strong.
Crypto’s Next Frontier: Regulated Memecoins and Collectibles
Critics claim anything beyond BTC and ETH is bound to fail. Canary Capital disagrees. Alongside the $PENGU ETF, the firm also filed for a Sui Network ETF, tied to a top-25 blockchain project with a $7.4 billion market cap. In total, they’ve submitted six ETF applications, clear evidence that interest is expanding beyond just crypto’s biggest names.
With a more favorable regulatory tone under the Trump administration and recent signs of relaxed SEC scrutiny, the U.S. market for crypto ETFs is heating up. On March 17 alone, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs attracted $274.59 million in inflows.
If approved, Canary’s NFT-backed ETF could represent a pivotal moment, bringing culturally iconic digital assets like Pudgy Penguins into the world of traditional finance and marking the start of a new era where creativity and capital finally collide on Wall Street.
