Asset management company VanEck has applied to sell a Solana (SOL) exchange-traded fund (ETF), marking the first such registration in the United States and just six days after 3iQ applied for a similar product in Canada.
The S-1 registration statement submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) helped boost the 24-hour price increase of SOL tokens to nearly 8%. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), which measures the broader crypto market, rose by 1.8%.
VanEck is well-known as a pioneer in this field. The asset management company was the first to apply for an Ethereum (ETH) ETF in 2021. About three years ago, the SEC began engaging with issuers, including companies such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and Ark Invest. VanEck submitted another filing in September last year.
Matthew Sigel, Director of Digital Asset Research at VanEck, wrote in an article on X: “We believe that the functionality of the native SOL token is similar to other digital commodities such as Bitcoin and ETH.” He believes that SOL is a commodity, not a security. “It is used to pay for transaction fees and computational services on the blockchain,” he wrote.
Sigel added that VanEck applied for the Solana ETF because the blockchain is a competitor to Ethereum and has a “unique combination of scalability, speed, and low cost”.
The SEC approved the first physically-backed Bitcoin (BTC) ETF in January, and an Ethereum ETF seems to be on the horizon as well. Analysts predict that an ETH ETF will attract $5 billion in net inflows within the first five months.
Several experts have stated that if an ETH ETF is approved, the next token to be included in such funds will be SOL, as its similarities with the second-largest cryptocurrency classify it as a commodity. However, they suggest that serious discussions around such products will not begin until 2025.
Standard Chartered Bank analyst Geoffrey Kendric believes Ripple’s XRP is a possible contender.
James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in an article on X: “(My) preliminary thoughts are that if there’s a new administration in the White House and the SEC, it’s only possible to launch at some point in 2025.” “Even then, it’s not a guarantee.”
