The Party's Over: How the Bitcoin ETF Killed Crypto's Cool Factor

Abstract

This paper documents a structural break in the risk return characteristics and cultural relevance of cryptocurrencies following the approval of the first spot Bitcoin ETF on January 10, 2024. Using daily price data from January 2021 to June 2026, we compare pre ETF and post ETF performance metrics, betas, and event study cumulative abnormal returns for Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum relative to the S&P 500 and gold. We then introduce two independent measures of public interest, Google Trends and Wikipedia page views, to test the hypothesis that Bitcoin lost its cultural "coolness" after institutionalization. The findings are striking. Dogecoin, the quintessential speculative asset, saw its Sharpe ratio collapse from 0.30 pre ETF to 0.01 post ETF, while its annualized return fell from 63.17% to 2.82%. Google search interest for Dogecoin declined 63.1% and its Wikipedia page views collapsed 75.9%. Searches for "how to buy Bitcoin," a proxy for new retail entrants, declined 22.7%. In contrast, general "cryptocurrency" interest fell 47.5%, while Bitcoin maintained a stable Sharpe ratio and saw its beta relative to the S&P 500 decline from 1.33 to 1.11. An event study reveals that the Trump 2024 election produced a +47.37% cumulative abnormal return for Dogecoin, but this proved temporary. The MSTR sale in May 2026, Michael Saylor's first Bitcoin sale since 2022, generated a-6.56% abnormal return for Bitcoin. These results support the thesis that ETF approval marked a cultural as well as financial regime shift, as retail speculative energy exited the crypto market and Bitcoin moved toward more of a diversifier role.