Many Crypto ETFs Could Shut Shortly After Launching: Analyst

More than 100 crypto exchange-traded products are likely to hit the market in 2026, but many of them will quickly be shuttered due to a lack of demand, an analyst says.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart said on Wednesday that he agreed with a 2026 prediction from crypto asset manager Bitwise that over 100 crypto ETFs would launch, but he said that many wouldn’t last.

“We’re going to see a lot of liquidations in crypto ETP products. Might happen at [the] tail end of 2026 but likely by the end of 2027,” Seyffart said, adding that over 126 ETP applications are currently awaiting an outcome from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Issuers are throwing A LOT of product at the wall.”

Last year, a total of 622 ETFs closed down, including over 189 in the US, The Daily Upside noted last month. Morningstar reported in January 2024 that the 244 ETFs that closed in the US in 2023 had an average age of 5.4 years.

Most of these investment products shut down because they failed to attract sufficient inflows, resulting in low assets under management.

Several crypto ETPs have already been liquidated this year, the most noteworthy being the ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Ethereum Strategy ETF (ARKY) and ARK 21Shares Active On‑Chain Bitcoin Strategy ETF (ARKC).

SEC’s listing standards to spur mass approvals

Industry analysts expect an explosion in the number of crypto ETPs approved in 2026 under the SEC’s new generic listing standards, which no longer require that each application be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Even before the SEC’s generic listing standards came into effect in September, asset managers had filed to launch ETFs tied to increasingly speculative tokens, such as Melania Trump‘s memecoin.

ETFs tracking Litecoin (LTC), Solana (SOL), and XRP (XRP) launched with relative success this year, expanding from the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs that launched in 2024.

Related: Bitcoin institutional buys flip new supply for the first time in 6 weeks

Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US have accumulated $57.6 billion worth of inflows since launching in January 2024, while spot Ether ETFs have amassed $12.6 billion since July 2024, Farside Investors data shows.

Meanwhile, spot Solana ETFs from Bitwise, VanEck, Fidelity, 21Shares, Franklin Templeton, and Grayscale have seen $725 million since late October.

Magazine: Quantum attacking Bitcoin would be a waste of time: Kevin O’Leary