VanEck is leaning hard into the cultural moment by rebranding its long-running Gaming ETF (BJK) as the “VanEck Degen Economy ETF,” turning a term born out of gambling and later popularized by crypto traders into a full-blown investment pitch.
The change, taking effect after the market closes on April 8, marks a strategic reset for a fund that has been around since 2008 yet holds only about $23 million in assets.
The rebrand is more than a name swap. VanEck is replacing the ETF’s benchmark index and broadening its mandate to capture a far wider slice of the digital economy — the platforms, financial tools and online behavior patterns that dominate the modern risk-taking landscape. The firm is essentially shifting the fund away from a narrow focus on casinos and traditional gaming toward an ecosystem that reflects how younger investors trade, spend, borrow, and earn today.
“Degen,” originally shorthand for “degenerate,” started as an insult among gamblers but became an inside joke and eventually a badge of identity among crypto traders and online retail investors. It describes people who make high-risk, impulsive bets, often for the thrill and community rather than pure financial logic. VanEck appears to be responding to that cultural shift, recognizing that the online world has normalized, even glamorized, this type of behavior. By using the term, the firm is positioning itself as an asset manager willing to meet digital-native investors where they are.
Under the new structure, the ETF’s universe expands into companies that earn at least half of their revenue from what VanEck is classifying as “Millennial Finance” and “Gig Economy and Online Forums.” These categories cover digital brokerages, neobanks, crypto exchanges, buy-now-pay-later providers, ride-hailing platforms, delivery apps, freelance marketplaces, and the online communities that bind these ecosystems together. These businesses have been central to the economic life of younger consumers, who rely heavily on app-based services and tend to take a more fluid approach to risk.
By contrast, the original ETF was rooted firmly in casinos, sports betting, lotteries and other gaming-related operators. While those industries remain profitable, they no longer capture the full spectrum of modern “betting” behavior — which now includes speculative crypto trading, short-term options plays, memestock frenzies, and everyday financial decisions made on mobile apps. The digital era has blurred the line between investing, gambling, and entertainment, and VanEck’s new ETF is attempting to reflect that reality.
The performance gap also helps explain the shift. The Gaming ETF is up only about 3 percent this year and has trailed major benchmarks such as the S&P 500 by a wide margin. With such modest returns and low assets under management, the fund risked fading into obscurity. The new mandate gives VanEck a chance to reposition it at a time when investor interest in gig platforms, digital finance tools, and crypto-adjacent companies remains strong.
The move also fits a broader pattern in the ETF industry. Fund managers have increasingly leaned into cultural or thematic branding to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. Themes tied to AI, electric vehicles, robotics, and even memes have drawn considerable attention over the past three years. The “Degen Economy ETF” follows this template but taps into a subculture that is unusually active, vocal, and tightly networked across social media — the same audience that drove the meme-stock boom and pushed trading apps into mainstream finance.
VanEck’s bet is that the digital risk economy is not a passing phase but a structural shift in how younger generations engage with markets and earn income. By building an ETF around that thesis, the firm is trying to capture a slice of the demographic that spends aggressively online, trades frequently, relies on gig work for flexibility, and uses alternative finance tools in place of traditional banking.
However, some analysts believe that whether the fund gains traction will depend on investors seeing this “Degen Economy” as more than a buzzword. But the rebrand makes it clear that even a conservative, decades-old asset manager can borrow from internet slang and crypto culture if it means staying relevant in the next phase of the ETF market.
