VanEck Investment Trust filed to launch a Solana-based spot ETF (SOL) on 27 June. The next day, it was joined by 21Shares, whose document envisaged the start of trading of an instrument called 21Shares Core Solana ETF.

The choice of this crypto asset as the basis for an exchange-traded fund sounded logical. Still, Solana is one of the most popular projects during the previous and current bullrun, with 2024 proving to be home to a huge number of useful apps and hype meme tokens.

Solana ecosystem immersion platform

However, it’s not without its downsides. Unlike Bitcoin and Efirium, there are no SOL-based futures instruments in the U.S., so the prospect of launching corresponding ETFs raised questions among analysts.

However, as Bloomberg representative Eric Balchunas noted earlier, the release of the novelty is quite likely. The chances of such a thing will be especially high in the event of a victory in the election of US President Donald Trump and the subsequent change of power representatives – and the head of the SEC, among others.

What will happen to the Solana ETF

Even before the applications were removed from the CBOE website, SEC officials held discussions with potential issuers of these investment instruments. As a result, the applications are also missing from the Federal Register – without this condition, the approval process doesn’t begin, which means the Commission has no deadline at all for this decision yet. Be that as it may, issuer representatives remain confident in the high probability of a Solana-ETF.

According to The Block’s sources, ETFs must be approved on Form 19b-4 and then S-1 to begin trading. The first type of filing determines the very fact that new ETFs will appear, while the second specifies the details of their listing.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission logo

In the case of S-1s, the SEC has no clear deadline to make a ruling. For example, the listing of spot Efirium-ETFs took place almost two months after they were approved, although SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said that the instruments would be approved by the end of summer.

At that time, many coin enthusiasts suspected him of knowingly underestimating the forecast, which could have affected sentiment. As the end of July showed, this opinion was indeed correct, because it took much less time to clarify all the details with issuing companies and other small things.

Bitcoin and Efirium are much higher than Solana in terms of market capitalisation, i.e. the product of the number of coins in circulation and their exchange rate

VanEck’s S-1 registration statement for the Solana-ETF is still on EDGAR, the SEC’s filing system. The information was confirmed by Matthew Siegel, head of digital asset research at VanEck. His rejoinder is cited by Cointelegraph.

Remember, exchanges like Nasdaq and CBOE are filing rule changes (19b-4) to list new ETFs. Issuers like VanEck are responsible for Form S-1 filings. Our company remains in the game.


Note that the SEC has previously labelled many cryptocurrencies as unregistered securities, including Solana, Cardano and MATIC. However, the proceedings with Ripple in court regarding the XRP coin showed that the Commission is unable to prove its position, and a judge can easily side with the defendant. Therefore, the current talk about the regulator's alleged recognition of SOL as a security means nothing, because in such a case the Commission's staff will face a trial.


Solana SOL rate changes from the beginning of 2024

21Shares’ S-1 registration statement no longer appears in search results, although the direct link to it still works. 21Shares head of communications Audrey Belloff declined to comment on the situation in detail.

We cannot comment on the regulatory process at this time. We remain committed to increasing investor access to cryptocurrencies in the U.S. market and around the world.

For executives of potential exchange-traded fund issuers, the news of the SEC’s indecision did not come as a surprise. The regulator has been openly hinting for quite some time that it is ready to recognise almost all altcoins as securities.

Bitcoin after the launch of spot ETFs in the US

The problem is also not helped by the fact that the Commission has already authorised the listing of ETFs based on Bitcoin and Efirium – its opposition to instruments based on other assets will clearly continue for the future.

A new variable in the whole scheme of things could well be the upcoming US presidential election. If Republican Donald Trump takes office, the current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, will clearly lose his chair - a promise the politician made during a speech at the Bitcoin 2024 cryptocurrency conference in Nashville on 27 July. In this case, the SEC could get a more crypto-friendly chairman, and the market would get a lot more new funds.

At the same time, Kamala Harris’ possible victory promises only problems for the coin industry. Firstly, she is the current Vice President of the US under Joe Biden, which means the struggles of the digital asset niche over the past three years have probably suited her. Secondly, Washington Reporter sources shared some unsavoury information tonight.

It turns out that Kamala Harris is considering Gary Gensler for US Treasury Secretary if she wins. Apparently, the current head of the SEC will continue his own policy towards digital assets, which means that the Democrats’ victory truly turns out to be dangerous for fans of blockchain and decentralisation.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler

What is happening again shows the stupidity of the situation in which the cryptocurrency industry in the US finds itself. Still essentially the world's largest funds are already facing uncertainty over what the SEC may or may not consider a certain digital asset to be a security. Obviously, instead, the Commission should have developed rules to adequately regulate this niche a long time ago, instead of putting the U.S. in the role of catching up with other countries and regions.