Canary Capital did not even exist when the mockery of Bitcoin or even Spot ethe Rexchange-traded funds launched last year.
But the company quickly made a name for itself in the industry.
The first in October, first founded in October last their kind.
From the outside, it seemed like the company had it all planned perfectly.
“We really had no idea that we would come back in the ETF game,” said Steve McClurg, founder and CEO of Canary Capital.
His name may sound familiar to some. McClurg founded and served as Chief Investment Officer at Valkyrie Investments, an alternative active manager who was acquired by Coinshares in March 2024.
After about six months at Coinhares, McClurg left the ETF provider to start Canary Capital as a hedge fund, an idea he had been working on in his time at Valkyrie.
“Essentially what happened was […] There was an attempted assault on Trump, the markets stood around what politics was standing around it, and we started thinking, yes, he could actually win, ”McClurg remembered.
“If he wins, there will be changes in regulatory agencies, and it is likely that other crypto -Tfs will be approved, so why we do not archive some ETFs and see what happens.”
Since the site Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs were already launched and well received by investors, Canary decided to pass on these assets. Instead, they looked further down the list of the top 20 tokens at market value, specifically those they thought were not securities, ultimately decided to submit LTC, HBAR and XRP ETF. The XRP movement was a speculation that the crypto would be considered a non-security of the court that was.
None of Canary Capital’s applications have yet been approved by Securities and Exchange Commission. Several Solana ETF archiving had been denied – or not recognized by SEC – under the leadership of the former agency in 2024.
After Trump inauguration, however, CBOE BZX BZX reinstated 19B-4 documents for sun-vehicles hoping to get approval under the new administration. SEC is required to respond to the new submissions within the next 45 days or, if officially delayed, 240 days.
Canary has also submitted a 19B-4 to its Litecoin ETF, which requires a response from SEC on February 29.
Canary Capital has not yet filed 19B-4S for its XRP and HBBar-ETFs. While an S-1 is considered a first-step to launch an ETF, it cannot be actionable if not followed by a 19B-4, which is required to inform SEC of a proposed rule change of a self-regulating device, such as an exchange .
McClurg described Canary’s efforts as a call opportunity for Trump to win the presidency.
“Oddly enough, it worked,” he said.
As for the future, the company does not currently have plans to launch more ETFs, McClurg said, but does not rule out that it could see potential in other symbols in the future.
