‘Government Grift’ ETF Tracking Congress Trades Could Launch This Week

Authored by Brayden Lindrea via CoinTelegraph.com,

An exchange-traded fund tracking the trading activity of American politicians, individuals and companies with close ties to the US president could launch later this week, according to an analyst. 

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said that Tuttle Capital Government Grift ETF (GRFT) could launch as early as Friday, as the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday set Oct. 3 as the date that Tuttle’s S-1 registration statement will become effective.

First proposed by Tuttle Capital Management earlier this year, the ETF would scan STOCK Act transaction reports to track trades made by members of Congress and their spouses.

The fund would also invest in companies with demonstrated ties to presidential influence, which may include companies with executives or directors affiliated with the White House, or businesses that receive praise from the US president, currently Donald Trump.

GRFT would track between 10 and 30 stocks and ETFs, with position sizes reflecting both the scale of congressional trading and the perceived influence of presidential backing.

“The Fund’s strategy is grounded in the belief that political actors — particularly members of the US Congress and individuals closely associated with the President — can influence market outcomes or possess information that materially affects security pricing,” Tuttle said in the prospectus filing in late June.

Source: Eric Balchunas

Cointelegraph reached out to Tuttle to find out more, but didn’t receive an immediate response.

Crypto could be in Tuttle’s fund

Trump’s involvement in cryptocurrency has been well-documented — and heavily criticized by some. 

One of Trump’s connections to the crypto industry is Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), which holds 15,000 Bitcoin worth $1.7 billion, while its subsidiary Truth Social has had spot crypto ETFs filed on its behalf.

Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC) is another publicly traded stock that is backed by the Trump family.

While not publicly traded stocks, Trump has been tied to two Trump-related memecoins — one named after him and the other after his wife, Melania — which launched a few days before he was inaugurated in January.

He is also closely tied to World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform in which the Trump family has $5 billion worth of WLFI tokens.

Tuttle already has several crypto ETPs in play

Tuttle lists several leveraged crypto exchange-traded products that seek to double the daily return of XRP , Solana, Litecoin and Chainlink, and many other cryptocurrencies.

Dozens of crypto ETFs are awaiting for official SEC approval

Meanwhile, the SEC approved generic listing standards for faster crypto ETF approvals earlier this month, potentially paving the way for several new crypto ETFs to enter the market, expanding beyond the spot Bitcoin and Ether  ETFs currently on offer.

Balchunas said the SEC’s generic listing standards essentially bumped the odds of more spot crypto ETF approvals up to 100% on Monday.

“Generic listing standards make the 19b-4s and their ‘clock’ meaningless. That just leaves the S-1s waiting for formal green light from Corp Finance.”