T. Rowe Price says holding dogecoin inside its new crypto exchange-traded fund is a deliberate investment call, not a bet on internet hype. Dogecoin makes up 1.26% of the fund's rotation, while bitcoin and ether together account for roughly 60% of the portfolio. The asset manager expects the fund to expand as more tokens meet SEC listing standards.
T. Rowe Price says its decision to hold dogecoin inside its new crypto fund reflects investment discipline, not a bet on internet hype. When the $1.9 trillion asset manager launched TKNZ in July as the industry's first actively managed multi-token spot crypto ETF, investors expected familiar names such as bitcoin, ether and solana — not memecoins.
Blue Macellari, T. Rowe Price's head of digital assets and TKNZ's lead portfolio manager, says active management means judging each eligible token on its own merits rather than dismissing it for its reputation. According to CoinDesk: "We wanted true active management," she said.
Dogecoin makes up 1.26% of the fund
The ETF currently lists only one memecoin, dogecoin, which makes up 1.26% of the fund as part of its rotation. Bitcoin and ether together account for roughly 60% of the portfolio. Binance Coin ranks as the third-largest holding, trading at $595.85.
Macellari argues established memecoins like dogecoin have been around for years and rank among the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. If a memecoin has strong momentum or could improve the portfolio, she says, excluding it on principle could leave investors on the sidelines.
Memecoin trading as a network stress test
Beyond portfolio construction, Macellari says memecoin trading reveals how blockchain networks perform under real demand. When a chain goes through a memecoin trading surge, she says, it comes as close as the industry can get to a genuine stress test, requiring near-instant settlement, low transaction costs and reliability even during congestion. That same resilience matters as stablecoins move further into mainstream finance, since networks need to handle transfers of $100 million as cheaply as sending $3.
An ETF built to grow
TKNZ currently invests in between five and 15 cryptocurrencies, and Macellari says the fund is designed to expand as more assets meet the SEC's generic listing standards, finalized last year. Those standards, she says, were a key reason the firm waited until now to launch a multi-token ETF with a universe that can grow over time. The fund carries a 0.75% management fee under a temporary waiver through May 2027.
Macellari expects the crypto ETF market to specialize further, with large-cap, small-cap and sector-focused funds eventually joining broad, mixed portfolios like TKNZ.
Source: CoinDesk: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto News and Price Data
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
