Cryptocurrency exchange‑traded funds (ETFs), often referred to as crypto ETFs, have shifted from niche experiment to a central pillar in the digital assets industry.
Since the first US spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in early 2024, followed by Ethereum ETFs, crypto ETFs have reshaped how both retail and institutional traders/investors engage with crypto.
As 2025 wraps up, the crypto ETF landscape features not only Bitcoin and Ethereum products but an expanding roster of altcoin ETFs, each pulling new investors and liquidity into markets that were once considered too volatile or opaque for traditional finance.
From novelty to mainstream: the rise of crypto ETFs
Since their inception, the Bitcoin ETFs, led by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (BIBT), have offered regulated exposure to BTC without requiring direct custody, attracting huge inflows and validating the crypto’s role in mainstream portfolios.
Towards the end of 2025, investors had about 12 spot BTC ETFs to choose from, as shown in the screenshot below.
Notably, the demand for Spot Bitcoin ETFs has outpaced the daily production of new BTC by miners, driven by high institutional interest.
According to Joshua Gortez, while miners produced 450 BTC per day in 2025 on average, Bitcoin ETFs saw 118 million BTC inflows, which is almost four times the amount of daily mined coins.
This imbalance has created a supply squeeze and was partly the reason why the Bitcoin price hit its all-time high of $126,198 in October 6, 2025.
The same has been the case for Ethereum. As 2025 came to an end, there were at least 11 Ethereum ETFs, opening regulated access to the second‑largest cryptocurrency.
The demand for Ethereum ETFs also skyrocketed in 2025, with July and August accounting for the highest inflows, causing a supply squeeze that propelled Ethereum’s price to an all-time high of $4,953.73 according to CoinMarketCap.
The altcoin ETFs approved in 2025
The success of the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs has catalysed a wave of filings for altcoin ETFs in 2025.
By the end of 2025, the cryptocurrency market had moved well beyond the early Ethereum and Bitcoin ETFs, with regulators clearing the first series of spot altcoin ETFs that investors had long anticipated.
In October 2025, after approval delays by the US SEC, Solana (SOL) ETFs by VanEck, 21Shares, Fidelity, Grayscale, and Bitwise were listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq, marking the first major derivatives‑free altcoin ETFs to enter the US market.
Shortly after, ETFs tied to Litecoin (LTC) and Hedera (HBAR) also hit the tape in late October 2025, giving investors regulated access to these cryptocurrencies through exchange‑traded funds.
These were later joined by several XRP ETFs, including the recently launched 21Shares XRP ETF (TOXR).
These spot XRP ETFs sit alongside earlier futures‑based XRP funds such as the ProShares Ultra XRP ETF that were approved earlier in the year, giving investors both leverage and directional strategies tied to XRP price movements.
The back-to-back altcoin ETF approvals came amid a new US SEC approach that allows generic listing standards, a streamlined path that cuts through earlier procedural bottlenecks.
Crypto ETFs expected to launch in 2026
While the first altcoin spot ETFs have already debuted, a broader wave is poised for approval as the SEC processes an expanding pipeline of applications.
Several tokens have generated substantial interest from issuers and analysts alike, and are widely expected to be approved if regulatory conditions stay favourable.
Dogecoin (DOGE), with filings from Bitwise and others, sits near the top of this list, with Bloomberg analysts placing high probabilities on its eventual approval.
Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX), and Polkadot (DOT) ETFs also feature prominently in active regulatory queues as issuers aim to expand investor choice.
Beyond that, altcoins like Tron (TRX), Chainlink (LINK), Sui (SUI), Aptos (APT), and multichain index ETFs are also in various stages of review or investor watchlists.
Some of the most intriguing filings are those that push the envelope of what a crypto ETF can be, including thematic derivatives and memecoin‑linked products.
Proposals for ETFs tracking tokens like BONK, politically themed assets such as TRUMP, and even NFT‑linked baskets highlight the experimental energy in this phase of crypto’s integration with mainstream finance, though approval probabilities for these speculative vehicles remain mixed and dependent on regulatory frameworks yet to fully form.
Moving into 2026, cryptocurrency investors can expect capital flows to shift and diversify as new crypto ETFs get approved, offering alternative risk exposures.
While Bitcoin and Ethereum remain the largest by AUM, emerging altcoin ETFs may unlock fresh interest in assets that previously lacked regulated access.
At the same time, ETF approvals are likely to amplify crypto’s correlations with traditional markets and bring more systematic strategies into portfolio design.
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