What to know:
- Volatility Shares LLC is launching two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking Solana futures, with SOLZ offering standard exposure and SOLT providing leveraged exposure.
- The ETFs, the first to track Solana futures, come as issuers await SEC decisions on spot Solana ETFs, which analysts see as having a 75% chance of approval by year-end.
- A spot Solana ETF approval may hinge on an established futures market, aligning with the SEC’s criteria for spot crypto ETFs.
Two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking futures in Solana (SOL) are coming on the market on Thursday.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Volatility Shares LLC is launching two ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) which will track Solana futures and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT), which offers leveraged exposure.
SOLZ will have a management fee of 0.95% while traders will be charged 1.85% for SOLT, according to the filing.
The products will be the first-ever funds tracking futures in Solana, which at a market cap of $66.5 billion is the sixth largest cryptocurrency on the market. The token is up 6% over the past 24 hours, in line with the broader crypto market.
The launch of these funds could be significant in the approval of a spot Solana ETF, which would hold the token directly. The SEC has stated in the past that in order to approve a spot product, they would like to see an established futures market for the asset.
After the launch of the spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs last year, issuers have been looking to bring further crypto-related products to the market.
Several issuers, including Grayscale, Franklin Templeton and VanEck, have filed paperwork to launch a spot Solana ETF, which have yet to be reviewed by the SEC. Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analysts believe there to be a 75% chance for those funds to be approved by the end of this year.
However, a decision likely won’t be made before Paul Atkins, who has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as chair of the SEC, is confirmed by the Senate. There is currently no hearing scheduled for Atkins.