T. Rowe Price responds to the inclusion of Dogecoin in its actively managed ETF: Mature meme coins with a history and market capitalization should not be excluded.

T. Rowe Price launched the industry’s first actively managed multi-token spot crypto ETF (ticker: TKNZ) in July. What caught the market’s attention wasn’t just its core allocation of roughly 60% to Bitcoin and Ethereum, but the fund’s inclusion of meme coins—currently Dogecoin (DOGE) at a ~1.26% weighting. Blue Macellari, the firm’s head of digital assets, led this strategy, whose core philosophy holds that true active management should not exclude mature meme coins with established history and market cap out of “intellectual arrogance”; if a coin has momentum or can boost portfolio performance, it should be added to give investors full market exposure, rather than only selecting “respectable” assets. Macellari further noted that meme coin trading is the most authentic “stress test” for blockchain networks: when a chain sees a meme coin boom, it best validates its scalability, near-instant settlement, low transaction costs, and reliability during congestion—all critical for the future large-scale adoption of stablecoins, as networks need to efficiently process large transfers worth hundreds of millions of dollars while also handling small payments of just a few dollars at low cost. T. Rowe Price evaluates tokens via a three-layer framework: blockchain technology and token economic models, ecosystem growth and adoption, and market momentum (including community sentiment on platforms like Crypto Twitter). The firm argues that sound judgment and active decision-making are more valuable in crypto assets than in any other asset class, and forecasts further segmentation of the crypto ETF market. The ETF currently holds 5 to 15 cryptocurrencies, with its investable scope set to expand as more tokens meet the SEC’s general listing standards.