Bitwise CEO Calls Dogecoin ETF Failure 'Tragic' as BWOW Set to Shut Down After Less Than a Year

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley called the failure of the firm’s spot Dogecoin ETF (NYSE:BWOW) "tragic" as the fund prepares to end trading after Oct. 14, less than a year after its November 2025 launch. During an interview with The Block at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia on Thursday, Horsley said, "I like Dogecoin, I own Dogecoin." He added that the token "went nowhere as an ETF." BWOW Assets Shrink Amid $1.23M Outflows A spot ETF is a fund that holds the underlying token and trades like a stock, so investors get price exposure through a regular brokerage account without owning or storing the coins. BWOW drew little investor money. SoSoValue data showed net assets of about $684,060 as of Oct. 8, with cumulative net outflows of $1.23 million. Horsley said the result reveals a "delta," or gap, between ETF buyers and crypto brokerage app users. "The users of ETFs just didn’t want to put money into Dogecoin, but that may change over time," he told The Block. Demand was stronger for the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (NYSE:BSOL), which has a market capitalization of about $899.9 million, according to Coinbase data. Horsley said its staking feature, which earns network rewards, helped. But he said the assets mainly reflect a bet on Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) as tokenization and stablecoins move onchain. Bitwise NEAR ETF Launch Signals Crypto-AI Push Last week, Bitwise launched the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NYSE:NRR), the first spot fund tracking NEAR Protocol’s (CRYPTO: NEAR) token. NEAR Intents, one of the protocol’s main features, lets users or AI agents swap assets across blockchains without using a bridge. Horsley said investors can bet that growth continues as AI agents gain financial abilities. "It has been growing, and I think investors can take the view that as agents are given more financial abilities, that it will grow even more," he said. Bitwise Index Funds Pitched for Five-Year Horizon For a five-year investment horizon, Horsley highlighted two of the firm’s index funds: the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF (NYSE:BITW) and the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (NYSE:BITQ). Horsley told The Block that he likes these options because the past few years have taught him that things can change. He believes both solutions give investors flexibility without forcing them to predict how things will unfold. Read Also: Dogecoin Price Prediction as DOGE ETF Inflows and Open Interest Fall Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: alfernec on Shutterstock.com