VanEck has rebranded its Gaming ETF (BJK) as the VanEck Degen Economy ETF, shifting the fund’s mandate toward companies whose business models derive a majority of revenue from so-called “degen” behaviors. The vehicle will now track the MarketVector Degen Economy Index and concentrate exposure on mobile-first finance, gig and forum platforms, and digital gambling and gaming firms, reframing the prior Gaming ETF’s strategy into a rules-based, indexed approach to these segments.
Index methodology and revenue screens
The fund follows the MarketVector Degen Economy Index, a curated basket of public companies that meet explicit revenue and market-structure thresholds. To qualify, a constituent must generate at least 50% of its revenue from defined “degen” activities and satisfy liquidity screens alongside a minimum market capitalization requirement of $150 million, with the index functioning as a rules-based selection and weighting mechanism rather than a bespoke active portfolio.
The ETF’s mandate organizes target activities into three core buckets that codify the “degen” theme into investable sectors. These buckets cover mobile-first finance such as digital brokerages, crypto exchanges, neobanks, BNPL and payments; gig-economy and online-forum platforms including ride-hailing, delivery, freelance marketplaces and peer-to-peer services; and digital gambling, betting and gaming across online gambling operators, iGaming software, video-game developers and sports-data providers.
VanEck positions the product as a regulated conduit to segments projected to expand rapidly, citing a sector growth projection of a 53.7% compound annual growth rate through 2030 for the aggregated opportunity set. Market observers have also flagged the shift as an explicit repositioning after the prior Gaming ETF’s underperformance, with Jeffrey Park of Morningstar Research Services noting, “To my knowledge it will be the first fund or ETF with Degen in the name.”
The ETF operates on a unitary fee structure with a 0.50% management fee that is intended to deliver straightforward cost visibility for investors. VanEck frames this fee model as a trade-off between regulatory compliance and simple, transparent pricing versus lower-fee DeFi-native vehicles that may run with less regulatory oversight.
Risk factors highlighted in the mandate and commentary include pronounced volatility, consumer-spending sensitivity and regulatory unpredictability across the targeted segments. Several of the fund’s focus categories rely heavily on discretionary, disposable income and have historically contracted sharply in downturns, while regulatory shifts affecting online gambling, crypto services or platform intermediaries could generate rapid valuation headwinds.
On the technology side, any exposure to decentralized-finance-linked businesses introduces engineering risk vectors such as oracle manipulation and smart-contract exploits. These issues are characterized as solvable through improved design and controls, but they remain practical attack surfaces for capital and protocol integrity that investors must incorporate into risk frameworks.
VanEck’s rebrand turns a niche cultural label into a formalized fund-level strategy that bundles these digital-first, high-churn sectors into a single indexed vehicle. The Degen Economy ETF institutionalizes access to mobile-first finance, gig platforms and digital gambling while concentrating counterparty, regulatory and technical risks in one thematic product.