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Grift’ ETF Tied to Washington Access in Trump Era Hits a Wall
By Isabelle Lee
December 30, 2025 at 2:14 AM GMT+8
Wall Street’s $13 trillion ETF machine pushed boundaries this year, cranking out ever-riskier products to feed retail traders hooked on yield, leverage and novelty.
But when Connecticut-based Tuttle Capital Management proposed an exchange-traded fund tracking the perceived value of political access, the machine ran into a wall.
The Tuttle Capital Government Grift ETF — ticker GRFT — is designed to target firms with apparent ties to Washington powerbrokers, from cabinet officials to stock-trading lawmakers. Yet no major exchange has agreed to list it, according to Matt Tuttle, chief executive of Tuttle Capital.
Tuttle said the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Inc. and Cboe Global Markets Inc. offered no formal explanation. He received cursory phone calls, he said, that conveyed little more than a no.
GRFT’s registration became effective with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the fourth quarter — according to a filing. While that status should allow the fund to proceed, it reflects a procedural milestone rather than an active regulatory endorsement, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s James Seyffart.
GRFT, intended as an actively managed fund, doesn’t name specific politicians or administrations, but the investment thesis is clear: offer everyday investors a way to trade on the presumptive link between power and profit.
“I think ‘grift’ implies that people are doing something wrong,” Tuttle said, speculating on why the exchanges turned it down. But “the investment philosophy is awesome. We are looking for unusual congressional trades,” he said.
Nasdaq declined to comment while Cboe and NYSE didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Tuttle’s remaining hope, he said, is the Texas Stock Exchange, an upstart marketplace set to begin trading in the first quarter next year. For now, he plans to keep the name, thesis and ticker unchanged.
The episode underscores the balancing act facing exchanges as they navigate a flood of provocative product ideas, while trying to maintain market credibility and regulatory guardrails. While most product proposals don’t spark headlines, GRFT’s limbo status lands at a time when the line between innovation and reputational risk is increasingly fraught.
“It’s the first time I can recall an ETF where they can’t list anywhere,” said Eric Balchunas, senior analyst at BI. “The ETF industry always pushes the envelope like a teenager. But, at some point, the parent says no.”
Leveraged ETFs Surge As Demand Intensifies
High octane offerings account for one-third of all US ETFs
Source: Bloomberg Intelligence
High-octane offerings — from leveraged single-stock ETFs to crypto-themed funds and strategies tied to zero-days-to-expiration options — proliferated this year. Issuers benefited from a more permissive regulatory tone set during the Trump administration, helping drive a record-breaking run of ETF flows, launches and trading activity.
Tuttle is no stranger to headline-grabbing filings. He’s pitched leveraged ETFs tied to Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin bets, Trump’s media company, Tesla Inc. and Nvidia Corp., carving out a niche turning market spectacle into high-volatility trades aimed at risk-hungry retail investors.
GRFT treads a path already carved out by competitors. The Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic and Republican Trading ETFs — NANC, in a cheeky nod to US Representative Nancy Pelosi, and GOP — both launched in 2023. Designed to track bipartisan disclosures under the STOCK Act, they drew in $267 million and $64 million, respectively. There’s also MAGA, launched in 2017, an ETF that tracks companies in alignment with Republican political beliefs. Unlike the aforementioned, whose tickers plainly signal political affiliation, GRFT’s name carries a more pointed edge — less shorthand and more critique.
Some industry analysts have raised concerns about the ETF’s premise, saying it could expose not just the issuer but the exchange itself to reputational blowback, regulatory scrutiny or even congressional attention.
“Not all PR is good PR,” said Todd Sohn, senior ETF analyst at Strategas Securities. “This is crossing into a territory where administrative risk is real in today’s environment.”
Not to mention that its premise may evoke unlawful securities trading to some ears.
“Insider trading is illegal, so an ETF focused on that practice is problematic given it is profiting from an ethical and legal conflict of interest,” said Jane Edmondson of TMX VettaFi.
The connection between political proximity and market outperformance is more often presumed than proven. Federal contracts may benefit certain firms, but the outcomes are slow-moving and contingent on factors, like industrial policy, far beyond access.
What sustains Tuttle’s case for GRFT is a broader belief that presidential politics — particularly in the Trump era — are wielding an unusually direct impact on individual stocks.
“We have got three more years at least of the most investable president we have ever had and we may never have this opportunity again,” Tuttle said. “I cannot remember any president who has been as impactful to different stocks as this one.” |
