More than 100 cryptocurrency exchange-traded products are likely to hit the market in 2026, but many of them will quickly close due to lack of demand, analysts say.
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart said Wednesday that while he agrees with cryptocurrency asset manager Bitwise’s 2026 prediction that more than 100 cryptocurrency ETFs will be launched, many of them will not last.
“We will see a lot of liquidations in cryptocurrency ETP products. It could happen by the end of 2026, but more likely by the end of 2027,” Seyffart said, adding that more than 126 ETP applications are currently awaiting results from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Publishers are throwing a lot of products at the wall.”
A total of 622 ETFs were closed last year, including more than 189 in the U.S., Daily Upside pointed out last month. Morningstar reported in January 2024 that the average age of the 244 ETFs closed in the U.S. in 2023 was 5.4 years.
Most of these investment products failed to attract sufficient inflow and were closed due to lack of operating assets.
Several cryptocurrency ETPs have already been liquidated this year, the most notable being the ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Ethereum Strategy ETF (ARKY) and the ARK 21Shares Active On-Chain Bitcoin Strategy ETF (ARKC).
SEC’s Listing Standards to Drive Bulk Approval
Industry analysts expect the number of cryptocurrency ETPs approved to explode in 2026 under the SEC’s new general listing standards. This standard no longer requires each application to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Even before the SEC’s general listing standards went into effect last September, asset managers were filing to launch ETFs linked to increasingly speculative tokens, such as Melania Trump’s memecoin.
ETFs tracking Litecoin (LTC), Solana (SOL), and XRP (XRP) are expansions from the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) ETFs that launched in 2024 and launched with relative success this year.
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US spot Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated $57.6 billion worth of inflows since their launch in January 2024, while spot Ether ETFs have accumulated $12.6 billion since July 2024, according to Farside Investors data.
Meanwhile, the spot Solana ETF from Bitwise, VanEck, Fidelity, 21Shares, Franklin Templeton and Grayscale has recorded $725 million since the end of October.
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