Canary Capital has submitted an S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a spot exchange-traded fund tied to PEPE. The proposed CANARY PEPE ETF would hold the underlying PEPE tokens directly through a third-party digital asset custodian. The filing also says the fund may keep up to 5% of its portfolio value in Ether to pay transaction fees on Ethereum.
Fund structure centers on PEPE with a small Ether reserve
The filing states that the product is designed to track the market price of PEPE rather than gain exposure through derivatives. Because PEPE operates on Ethereum, the fund would maintain a limited ETH allocation to handle network fees tied to transfers and other on-chain activity. That makes PEPE the core holding, while Ether serves an operational purpose inside the structure.
More than 250,000 wallets hold PEPE, but supply remains concentrated
At the time of publication, PEPE was still trading well below its all-time high. Data cited from Etherscan shows that more than 250,000 unique wallets hold the token. The filing, however, flags a concentration risk and describes the token’s distribution as highly concentrated. According to the document, as of January 2026, the 10 largest PEPE wallet addresses collectively held about 41% of the circulating supply. For an ETF proposal, that ownership profile stands out as a central risk disclosure.
PEPE joins a growing list of altcoin ETF proposals from Canary
PEPE is based on the fictional Pepe the Frog character created by Matt Furie. The meme coin drew major attention in 2024 and became a regular feature in speculative trading markets. The report also notes that BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has publicly backed the token’s potential.
A spot PEPE ETF could bring fresh liquidity and renewed market attention in the short term, though the report stops short of making any call on sustained institutional demand. Among meme coins, only one other asset was cited as having its own spot ETF product: Dogecoin. Grayscale launched the Grayscale Dogecoin Trust and a later ETF in November, but the product’s initial performance was described as weak.
The PEPE filing also broadens Canary Capital’s product lineup. Its offerings already include funds tied to other altcoins such as Solana, XRP, and Litecoin.