VanEck files for Solana ETF SOL rises 8%

Author: Oliver Knight, Helene Braun, CoinDesk; Translated by: Baishui, Golden Finance

Asset manager VanEck filed to sell the Solana (SOL) exchange-traded fund (ETF), the first such registration in the U.S. and just six days after 3iQ filed for a similar product in Canada.

The filing of an S-1 registration form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) helped boost the SOL token’s 24-hour gains to nearly 8%. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), which measures the broader crypto market, rose 1.8%.

As we all know, VanEck is a pioneer in this field. The asset management company was the first to apply for an Ethereum (ETH) ETF spot in 2021, and about three years ago, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began to contact issuers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Ark Invest, etc. Another document was submitted in September last year.

“We believe the native token, SOL, functions similarly to other digital commodities such as Bitcoin and ETH,” Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital asset research, wrote in an article on X. He believes SOL is a commodity, not a security. “It is used to pay for transaction fees and computing services on the blockchain,” he wrote.

Sigel added that VanEck filed for the Solana ETF because the blockchain, a competitor to Ethereum, has a “unique combination of scalability, speed and low cost.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF in January, and an Ethereum ETF appears to be on the horizon. Analysts predict that the ETH ETF will attract $5 billion in net inflows in the first five months.

Several experts said that if the ETH ETF is approved, the next token to be packaged into such a fund would be SOL, as its similarities to the second-largest cryptocurrency classify it as a commodity. However, they said that serious discussions around such products would not begin until 2025. Standard Chartered analyst Geoffrey Kendric sees Ripple's XRP as a possible option.

“[My] initial thinking is that a launch would only be possible sometime in 2025 if there is a new administration in the White House and at the SEC,” Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart wrote in a post on X. “And even then, there are no guarantees.”