Will Solana Be the Next Cryptocurrency to Get a US ETF?

After Spot ETFs for both Bitcoin and Ethereum were finally approved in the US this year, many in the crypto space are openly wondering whether or not Solana will be next.

After a Bitcoin ETF and an Ethereum ETF were finally approved in the US this year, many in the crypto space are openly wondering whether or not Solana will be next.

But Brazil's Solana Spot ETF will provide an interesting test case for its viability in US markets.

2024: An ETF Bonanza

2024 has been a truly pivotal year for exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, in the cryptoasset industry. The SEC made headlines around the globe when it announced the Bitcoin ETF's approval in January. The events that followed led to a historic rally in Bitcoin’s price, a multibillion dollar trade in these new assets and permanent changes to the landscape of the entire industry.

Several months later, the SEC approved the second major spot ETF, based on Ethereum. By this point, the SEC was no trailblazer, as jurisdictions abroad had already approved similar products months prior. In other words, a total taboo even one year ago turned into an open season.

In this environment, the community has asked one question: which cryptocurrency will win approval next?

One possible candidate has jumped to the head of the pack, according to many experts; Solana, a blockchain platform and fifth-largest cryptoasset by market cap. This young coin first went public in 2020, offering a proof-of-stake model and a smart contract system similar to Ethereum.

Solana is more likely than Tether or BNB, the third and fourth-largest coins respectively, for fairly obvious reasons. In past ETF legal battles, a core sticking point between issuers and regulators has been Bitcoin and Ethereum’s legal status. Are they commodities or securities? If a corporate entity can meddle with a coin’s price, what chaos could that do to an ETF? The ETF is already a security, and it simply wouldn't work to build a security around a security-type coin.

The Steps to Success

The SEC considers a spot ETF a gold-standard for regulatory approval, something that investors of all sizes can trust. It would never dream of building one around an asset with an obvious back door. Tether is a stablecoin, and this means it will always be open to direct management from its issuers. Binance controls BNB, and US regulators have ample reason to distrust it. In short, a these controllers could deliberately sink or float an asset, wreaking havoc on US finance.

Compared to these, Solana seems as qualified to be an ETF as Ethereum was. Plus, Solana's market cap is quite formidable, promising that investors would show higher demand than smaller commodity-type assets.

Indeed, Brazil accepted the terms of this logic wholeheartedly, with the first Solana ETF getting its approval in late August. This was no one-off, however, as the nation's securities regulator (CVM) made a second approval mere days later.

Despite this positive sign, however, another possible setback has materialized. Although Bitcoin's ETF was dynamite, with some of the fastest-ever growth in the ETF market, Ethereum's has been a fizzle. Ethereum products saw outflows of $458M since their launch, but these losses coincided with a sunny market for their counterparts. If Ethereum's ETFs are a flop, why would a smaller cousin have more success?

Read More: Bitcoin ETFs Hit Milestone With Over 1,000 Institutional Investors

These market trends add context to news that the SEC has rejected CBOE's fledgling attempt to win a Solana ETF. Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg analyst and ETF expert, claimed in a social media post that the Solana ETF has “a snowball’s chance in hell of approval unless there's change in leadership”. He also noted that CBOE's 19b-4 filings have already vanished from the SEC's site.

In the Bitcoin ETF race, a crucial factor was that the SEC could not legally drag its feet. After reaching each new step, the SEC had a hard deadline to make a ruling. As Balchunas showed, however, the SEC shot down the Solana ETF before these clocks could start ticking.

Next Steps, or Long Shots?

And yet, these pessimistic predictions are not the final word on the subject. CBOE filed these requests on behalf of two potential issuers, VanEck and 21Shares. As far as VanEck is concerned, this harsh rejection is a mere temporary setback.

Matthew Sigel, the firm's Head of Digital Assets Research, has been vocal in his belief of Solana's ETF eligibility. Sigel specifically drew attention to a narrow legal precedent, a 2018 court case between the CFTC and My Big Coin, a now-defunct token issuer. In this case, the CFTC successfully argued that this token was a commodity-type asset, establishing precedent that coins of a similar structure are commodities too. Provided