T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) is moving beyond single-token products with an actively managed cryptocurrency fund holding Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), BNB (CRYPTO: BNB), Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) and Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: HYPE).
Bitcoin Provides Defensive Exposure
Blue Macellari, T. Rowe Price’s head of digital assets and the ETF’s lead portfolio manager, said the fund reflects the company’s longstanding emphasis on active management and fundamental research.
“We were never going to launch just a Bitcoin ETF,” Macellari said during an appearance on the Crypto Prime podcast on Monday.
Its initial portfolio was led by Bitcoin at roughly 41% and ETH at about 18%, followed by positions in BNB, SOL XRP, HYPE and smaller allocations to other assets.
Macellari described the current market as a crypto winter and noted the fund is positioned relatively defensively, explaining its substantial Bitcoin weighting.
‘Tokenization Good, Crypto Bad’ Is A False Divide
Macellari argued that Wall Street often tries to separate tokenization from cryptocurrencies by claiming tokenization is valuable while native digital assets are not.
She rejected that distinction.
If stocks, funds and other financial products migrate to public blockchains, their activity could create value for the networks and native tokens underpinning those systems.
The broader portfolio reflects T. Rowe Price’s bullish outlook on what she called “on-chain finance.”
Macellari highlighted Hyperliquid’s revenue model as particularly compelling because it can be understood and valued using metrics familiar to traditional investors.
ETH and SOL may also benefit as financial institutions move tokenized assets and around-the-clock markets onto blockchain networks, she predicts.
Crypto Winter May Approach Its Final Stage
Macellari explained that the market has been in a persistent downturn since the October 2025 selloff, marking the first crypto winter experienced by many investors through spot exchange-traded products.
Bitcoin has suffered a drawdown of about 50%, while Ethereum, Solana and other altcoins have faced deeper declines.
However, she said the selloff has created more attractive asymmetric opportunities in projects whose underlying adoption and economics remain intact.
The key difference from previous winters is that banks, asset managers and financial platforms have continued developing digital-asset infrastructure rather than abandoning the sector.
Macellari expects choppy conditions and the possibility of further declines through the summer but believes the market could begin emerging from crypto winter heading into Q4.
Image: Shutterstock
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