Solana (SOL) Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) Are Set to Launch in Canada on April 16

This article has been updated to include a comment from the Ontario Securities Commission.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has approved several asset managers to launch spot Solana (SOL) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Canada, according to a report by Bloomberg on Thursday, April 13.

The approved asset managers are Purpose, Evolve, CI and 3iQ, a private client note from TD Bank claims. The ETFs are set to launch on April 16, according to the report.

The approved ETFs will also be permitted to stake a portion of the SOL holdings for added yield, Balchunas said, adding that the upcoming listings are "our first look at the alt coin race."

In a statement to CoinTelegraph, the OSC said the approval and oversight of SOL ETFs are in accordance with a January notice outlining amending rules for publicly traded funds holding cryptocurrencies.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has acknowledged dozens of applications to list ETFs holding alternative cryptocurrencies, or "altcoins," but so far has only approved funds holding spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) for trading.

Staking is still off limits for U.S. crypto ETFs. According to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, Ether ETFs could be greenlighted to start staking as soon as May, but the process may take months longer.

However, investors’ demand for altcoin ETFs may be weaker than for funds holding core cryptocurrencies, Katalin Tischhauser, crypto bank Sygnum's research head, told CoinTelegraph in August.

“[T]here is all this frothy excitement in the market about these ETFs coming, and no one can point to where substantial demand is going to come from,” Tischhauser told CoinTelegraph.

In March, asset manager Volatility Shares launched the first ETFs to track Solana's performance using financial derivatives.

The Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) has seen a lukewarm reception, attracting only around $5 million in net assets as of April 14, according to its website.

“FWIW, the 2 solana ETFs in US (which track futures so not a perfect guinea pig) haven't done much. Very little in aum. The 2x XRP already has more aum than both the solana ETFs and it came out after,” Balchunas said.

Balchunas added that he "[w]ouldn't read a ton into it" as a predictor for spot SOL ETFs.