VanEck will relaunch its underperforming Gaming ETF as the VanEck Degen Economy ETF after market close on April 8, 2026, aiming to capture what it describes as the “degen” digital-economy cohort. The new product targets sectors projected to grow at a 53.7% compound annual rate through 2030, replacing an ETF that held roughly $23 million in assets and delivered only a 3% return.
Index mandate and targeted segments
The ETF will track the MarketVector Degen Economy Index, which selects public companies that derive at least 50% of their revenue from specified high-growth segments. The index’s rule set covers digital brokerage and payment platforms, digital-asset exchanges and neobanks under “Millennial Finance,” gig-economy platforms, online forums and freelance marketplaces under “Gig Economy & Online Forums,” and online gambling, iGaming, betting and video-game developers under “Digital Gambling, Betting & Gaming,” with VanEck applying a unitary 0.50% management fee to the fund.
In this context, the term “degen” refers to investors and consumers who habitually engage in high-risk, high-frequency digital trading or wagering behaviors. Jeffrey Park of Morningstar Research Services highlighted the branding shift by noting that VanEck is renaming its Gaming ETF “Degen Economy” and moving it to track a “Degen Economy” index, while Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg Intelligence characterised the old ETF as a “dud” and described degens as a growing economic faction.
VanEck situates the rebrand within a broader backdrop of regulatory developments that may support institutional access to digital markets. The launch narrative references the U.S. Digital Asset Market Structure Bill and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) as contextual tailwinds that provide clearer regulatory scaffolding for digital-asset-related businesses.
For VASP operators, custodians and asset servicers, the product raises operational rather than immediate new legal obligations, centering on custody models and segregation, enhanced record retention and auditability for index constituents, and counterparty due diligence proportionate to exposure to gambling and crypto-related revenue streams. These are framed as practical compliance checkpoints that will determine whether index constituents satisfy institutional custody and reporting expectations without adding undue jurisdictional or operational risk.
The investment thesis blends cultural and economic observations, linking persistent, high-engagement behaviors among younger cohorts with the monetization of digital services across trading, gig platforms and online wagering. The bullish case assumes continued adoption and monetization of these platforms, while the bearish view stresses structural volatility, sensitivity to disposable-income cycles and the risk of abrupt regulatory tightening in online gambling and crypto trading, with market commentary summarising a pragmatic, cautiously constructive stance over the next 12–24 months.
VanEck’s shift to the VanEck Degen Economy ETF thus recasts an underperforming niche fund as a concentrated bet on fast-growing digital-revenue companies anchored to a defined index threshold and a 0.50% fee. The rebrand will test whether a regulated ETF wrapper can reconcile high-engagement, high-volatility digital business models with institutional expectations for custody, reporting and jurisdictional risk management.
