VanEck has announced a major overhaul of its existing VanEck Gaming ETF (ticker: BJK), rebranding it as the VanEck Degen Economy ETF.
This move, approved by the fund’s board on December 5, 2025, shifts the ETF’s focus from traditional gaming sectors to what VanEck calls the “Degen Economy”—a high-growth, speculative segment blending digital finance, gig work, online gambling, and digital gaming.
The changes are set to take effect after April 8, 2026, marking the first ETF to include “Degen” short for “degenerate,” a crypto slang term for high-risk, impulsive trading in its official name.
The original Gaming ETF, launched in 2007, had underperformed, trading flat or in “neutral” sentiment among retail investors recently, with assets under management hovering around $75 million.
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VanEck is pivoting to capitalize on booming “degen” trends, which they describe as a cultural and economic force driven by millennials and Gen Z. These sectors are projected to grow rapidly due to increased disposable income, mobile adoption, and regulatory tailwinds in digital markets.
As ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted on X, it’s a savvy way to “mess with” a dud product by leaning into the “degen” narrative, potentially attracting a new wave of speculative investors.
The “Degen Economy” Index
The ETF will now track the MarketVector Degen Economy Index, a market-cap-weighted benchmark of global companies deriving at least 50% of revenue from “degen”-adjacent activities. Key pillars include: Digital brokerages like Robinhood), neobanks, crypto exchanges, and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services.
Gig economy includes ride-sharing, food delivery (e.g., DoorDash), and on-demand platforms. Online casinos, iGaming software, sports betting apps (e.g., DraftKings), video game developers, and sports data analytics.
This isn’t a pure crypto play—it’s more about “Robinhood culture crossed with Uber and DraftKings,” as one analyst put it—but it nods to decentralized finance (DeFi) and speculative digital assets.
VanEck positions it as a bet on volatile, sentiment-driven industries that could boom or bust with user incentives and regulatory shifts. The announcement sparked lively discussion, with over 120,000 views on Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas post alone.
Crypto influencers like Tyler_Did_It highlighted it as a “way to bet on cultural trends or their demise,” while skeptics called it an “oxymoron” or mere marketing for underperforming assets.
This aligns with VanEck’s crypto-friendly stance, they’ve filed for Bitcoin and Solana ETFs. Amid Fed rate cuts and crypto inflows ~$535M into BTC ETFs since Nov 20, it’s timed for a risk-on environment. Degen sectors are inherently volatile—tied to boom-bust cycles, regulatory crackdowns (e.g., on gambling), and sentiment swings.
The term “degen” is short for degenerate — originally a derogatory label in traditional finance and gambling circles for people who take extreme, reckless risks with money like betting the house on a single hand or YOLO-ing life savings into a penny stock.
It was reborn and positively reclaimed around 2020–2021 in crypto Twitter (CT) and WallStreetBets (WSB) culture, turning from an insult into a badge of honor. Retail traders on Reddit pumped GameStop, squeezing hedge funds. “YOLO” became mainstream.
“Degen” starts being used ironically/positively by retail traders. Yield farming at 10,000% APY, 1000x meme coins, and NFT flips on OpenSea. Crypto Twitter calls these high-risk players “degens.”
Telegram groups called “Degen Lair.” Being a degen = embracing volatility, leverage, and meme coins. Apeing, rug pulls, leverage trading. Terms like “ngmi” (not gonna make it), “wagmi” (we’re all gonna make it), “send it” emerge. Degen becomes a full subculture with its own slang and aesthetics.
“Degen” now explicitly means speculative, sentiment-driven trading. VanEck launches “Degen Economy ETF”, Bloomberg covers “degen trading”, BlackRock analysts use the term. The joke becomes an official investment theme
High-risk, high-leverage trading Perpetuals with 50–125x leverage on crypto exchanges. Memecoin casino culture Launching or aping into coins with zero fundamentals, purely on vibes and Telegram hype. Gig economy as speculative labor Driving for Uber or delivering DoorDash to fund the next degen trade
Millennials and Gen Z have lower trust in traditional institutions and see “safe” investing (index funds, 401ks) as rigged or too slow. Crypto and options give instant P&L, unlike waiting 40 years for compound interest.
Calling yourself a degenerate while wearing it as a flex disarms critics. Many early degens turned hundreds into millions during 2021 and many more went to zero, creating legends and copycats.
The Degen Economy started as crypto/gambling slang in 2021, got turbocharged by meme stocks and DeFi, and by 2025 had grown large and visible enough that a major asset manager (VanEck) literally named an ETF after it.
It’s the financial equivalent of punk rock — loud, reckless, and deliberately offensive to boomers. Fees remain at 0.65%, but expect higher beta than the old fund. If you’re eyeing exposure, it’s a thematic play on digital disruption, but not for the faint-hearted.
This could be the start of more “meme-ified” finance products—what’s next, a “FOMO 500”?