2025-04-21
On April 18, 2025, U.S. asset manager Canary Capital registered with the SEC to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would hold TRX, the native
token of the Tron blockchain.
The fund also plans to stake some of
the TRX tokens to earn extra income. Right now, staking TRX gives about a 4.5%
annual return, according to StakingRewards.com.
TRX is the 9th largest cryptocurrency
by market cap, valued at $23 billion.
This filing is part of a recent wave of
applications for crypto ETFs, especially those focused on alternative
cryptocurrencies (altcoins).
What makes Canary’s ETF different is
that it asks to stake crypto right from the start.
Other ETFs, like those for Ethereum
(ETH), have only tried to add staking after their spot funds were approved —
and are still waiting for a decision.
Tron is a proof-of-stake blockchain
created by Justin Sun, who also owns Rainberry (formerly BitTorrent).
In 2023, the SEC sued Sun, accusing him
of manipulating the prices of TRX and BitTorrent’s BTT token. In early 2025,
both sides asked the judge to pause the case to explore a settlement.
Since President Trump returned to
office in January, U.S. regulators have received many crypto ETF filings. These
include funds based on major tokens like Solana (SOL) and even memecoins like
Official Trump (TRUMP).
Canary has already submitted proposals
for ETFs based on other cryptocurrencies, including Litecoin (LTC), XRP, Hedera
(HBAR), Axelar (AXL), Pengu (PENGU), and Sui (SUI).
Still, some experts are skeptical.
Crypto analyst Alex Krüger said on X in March that most altcoin ETFs probably
won’t attract enough investors and might end up losing money for their issuers.
