CoinWorld reported:
On the evening of the 27th, at 9:00 PM Beijing time, market news revealed that VanEck had submitted an application for a Solana ETF, sparking a surge in the token market within the Solana ecosystem. The price of SOL briefly surpassed 150 USDT, while top tokens like WIF and RAY experienced over a 10% increase within an hour.
Shortly after, Matthew Sigel, the Director of Digital Asset Research at VanEck, confirmed the news on the X platform. VanEck has applied for a Solana ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The new fund is called VanEck Solana Trust and is the first Solana ETF application in the United States.
When asked about the reason for applying for a Solana ETF, Matthew stated, “Solana is a competitor to Ethereum and can handle transactions such as payments, trading, gaming, and social interactions. The Solana blockchain operates as a single global state machine without the need for sharding or Layer 2, providing a better user experience. We believe that the combination of high throughput, low fees, strong security, and a vibrant community makes Solana an attractive choice for an ETF, offering investors a versatile and innovative open ecosystem.”
While this development marks a significant milestone in Solana’s history, the approval process is still distant in terms of time and procedures. Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder of Wintermute, poured cold water on the situation, stating that the possibility of SOL ETF approval this year is almost zero. Gaevoy believes it would be foolish to assume it would be a priority for the Trump administration. He further added that even if the SOL ETF is approved, the inflow of funds would be minimal compared to the ETH ETF. Gaevoy emphasized that Wintermute is a long-term supporter of SOL and ETH but cautioned against excessive hype, stating that the adoption of cryptocurrencies takes time.
James Seyffart, a Bloomberg analyst who previously received attention for his Bitcoin ETF application, also expressed his opinion. He stated that if there is a change in the White House administration and the SEC undergoes personnel changes, the related applications might be launched at some point in 2025, but there is also a possibility they may not materialize. Seyffart emphasized the need to focus on whether other issuers will follow VanEck after submitting the first SOL ETF in the United States.
Looking back at VanEck and ETFs, as early as 2013, the U.S. SEC received the first Bitcoin ETF application, but it did not progress due to the immaturity of the market. In 2018, the Bitcoin ETF application reached its first peak, with VanEck being one of the pioneers. VanEck and SolidX collaborated on a Bitcoin ETF application, which was rejected on February 27, 2019.
In October 2021, ProShares’ Bitcoin futures ETF was approved and began trading, becoming the first approved Bitcoin-related ETF in the United States. In the same month, VanEck’s Bitcoin futures ETF was also approved. However, its Bitcoin spot ETF was rejected the following month, and it wasn’t until January of this year that the Bitcoin spot ETF gained SEC approval.
The path to the birth of a Bitcoin ETF has been fraught with difficulties, with each significant development taking years to progress. While the dawn of a Solana ETF is emerging, the road to approval remains distant.
The classification of Ethereum as a commodity or security has been a core reason for the perceived difficulty in approving an Ethereum spot ETF. The 19b-4 filing for an Ethereum spot ETF in May was able to pass because all applying institutions modified their terms to ensure ETH would not involve interest-bearing operations. Additionally, on June 18, the U.S. SEC announced the conclusion of its investigation into Ethereum 2.0, which can be seen as a milestone victory and a positive signal. It suggests that there may be a new direction regarding staking POS tokens, and tokens previously considered securities may be recognized as commodities in the future.
Although the commodity and security attributes of other cryptocurrencies are still undecided, hindering the approval of ETFs, it does not prevent top institutions like VanEck from making early applications. In fact, Matthew Sigel, the Director of Digital Asset Research at VanEck, expressed his opinion on this matter, stating, “Why do we believe SOL is a commodity like BTC and ETH? We believe that the native token SOL functions similarly to other digital commodities, used for paying transaction fees and computational services on the blockchain. Like ETH on Ethereum, SOL can be traded on digital asset platforms or used for peer-to-peer transactions. SOL’s decentralized nature, high utility, and economic viability align with the characteristics of other mature digital commodities, further strengthening our belief that SOL could become a valuable commodity.”
However, this is only VanEck’s perspective, and whether the SEC will approve a Solana spot ETF in the future remains to be seen.
Despite the considerable distance to the approval of a Solana ETF based on the current market situation, the cryptocurrency market relies heavily on speculative expectations. It does not necessarily require the news to be confirmed before initiating an upward trend. Each significant development has the potential to drive the rise of tokens within the Solana ecosystem. However, it is important to note that market fluctuations are significant, and caution should be exercised, especially when using leverage.
