T. Rowe Price is moving decisively into crypto: the $1.8 trillion asset manager has amended its S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to detail a new actively managed exchange-traded fund that could include mainstream and meme tokens alike.
The proposed Price Active Crypto ETF would be allowed to invest in a broad universe of digital assets — from bitcoin and ether to solana, XRP, cardano, avalanche, litecoin, polkadot, chainlink, stellar, hedera, bitcoin cash, and even dogecoin and shiba inu. The filing makes clear the fund won’t hold every token at once; instead, under normal market conditions it plans to maintain a concentrated portfolio of between five and fifteen crypto assets, chosen and rebalanced using quantitative models that weigh fundamentals, valuation and momentum.
That active-management approach is designed to give the fund flexibility to rotate positions as market conditions change, with the stated aim of outperforming the FTSE US Listed Crypto Index. If approved, the ETF would join a growing roster of regulated crypto products that let investors gain digital-asset exposure through traditional brokerage accounts — but it would differ from many recent U.S. launches (notably the spot-Bitcoin ETFs of 2024) by offering managers discretion over holdings rather than passively tracking a single token or benchmark.
Operational details in the filing: Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. is named as the custodian charged with safeguarding the fund’s crypto assets, and the ETF will initially use a cash subscription/redemption model (investors create or redeem shares with cash rather than transferring crypto). T. Rowe Price also left the door open to in-kind transactions in the future, which some crypto funds use to exchange shares for the underlying tokens.
Another noteworthy possibility disclosed is staking. The filing says the fund could pursue staking — locking up certain tokens to help secure proof-of-stake networks in exchange for rewards — but only after careful consideration of associated risks, tax treatment and regulatory guidance.
The amended filing expands on T. Rowe Price’s original October application and represents a significant step by the 87-year-old firm, one of the world’s largest asset managers, into the digital-asset arena. If launched, the Price Active Crypto ETF would offer investors an actively managed pathway into crypto markets, combining traditional institutional infrastructure with exposure to both established and emerging tokens.
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