The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first spot Solana exchange-traded funds on Friday afternoon, clearing applications from VanEck, Bitwise, 21Shares, Grayscale Investments, and Franklin Templeton ahead of the May 7 statutory deadline. The five funds will begin trading on the Cboe BZX exchange Monday morning under tickers SOLB, BSOL, TSOL, GSOL, and EZSO respectively.
Solana surged 11.8% in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, climbing to $310.40 in late-Friday trading and posting a fresh all-time high. The cryptocurrency has now gained 84% year-to-date, far outpacing Bitcoin's 28% YTD return and Ethereum's 41% advance. SOL's market capitalization briefly crossed $164 billion, ranking it third among all crypto assets behind Bitcoin and Ethereum.
$1.4 Billion Day-One Forecast
Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas published a joint note Friday evening forecasting $1.4 billion in collective day-one net inflows across the five products, which would rank as the third-largest crypto ETF launch ever behind only the Bitcoin ETF debut in January 2024 and the Ethereum ETF launch in July 2024. By comparison, Ethereum ETFs collected $1.05 billion on day one.
All five issuers will charge a 0.20% expense ratio for the first six months as part of standard launch promotions, undercutting Grayscale's legacy Solana Trust which will continue to charge 1.50% during a transition period. VanEck and Bitwise have committed to staking a portion of underlying SOL holdings, generating an estimated 4.8% native yield that will be passed through to ETF holders as additional return — a structure not available with the existing Bitcoin or Ethereum spot products.