Crypto asset manager Bitwise announced it will liquidate and close its spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund, the Bitwise Dogecoin ETF (BWOW), less than a year after launch. The fund's final day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange is expected to be October 14, with shareholders able to sell in the secondary market until the close that day.
Remaining shareholders will receive the net asset value of their holdings as of October 21, paid in cash on October 22. Bitwise said no shareholder action is required. “Bitwise has determined to liquidate the Fund as it continues to optimize its product range to meet evolving investor needs,” the firm said in a statement.
The closure comes about 10 months after BWOW launched in November 2025. Although the first US spot Dogecoin ETF entered the market in September 2025 and attracted early hype, investor demand has remained weak. BWOW peaked at roughly $3 million in daily trading volume during its launch week, but activity never returned to that level.
Across the market, spot Dogecoin ETFs recorded about $318,000 in net inflows last month, reversing small outflows from July. Total Dogecoin ETF trading volume has reached approximately $300 million, far below competing altcoin ETFs tied to Hyperliquid ($2.1 billion), Zcash ($1.5 billion), and Chainlink ($680 million).
At publication time, Dogecoin traded near $0.084, giving it a market capitalization of about $13 billion. The asset has fallen out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies over the past year as HYPE and ZEC gained ground. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley previously noted: “DOGE began as a joke and came to become an icon of the crypto movement. It doesn’t purport to transform global capital markets or convince you it has fundamentals or utility.”
The ETF's short lifespan highlights a broader shift in the altcoin ETF market from approval races to a demand test, where strong token branding alone may not be enough to sustain specialized funds.
