Solana ETF filers pass ball to SEC to ‘iron out details’ on staking revisions

14h ago•

bullish:

bearish:

There were no holdouts.

All seven firms vying to launch a Solana exchange-traded fund have now updated their filings to include staking provisions.

The amended filings came after the Securities and Exchange Commission reached out to issuers last week, requesting revisions to address staking, according to sources cited by Blockworks.

But the updates don’t mean approvals will start rolling in anytime soon.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said there will likely be “a back and forth with the SEC and issuers to iron out details,” noting that the Bitcoin ETF process involved “a lot of filings over the months before launch.”

Asked whether Solana ETFs could beat Ethereum to the punch on staking, Seyffart said it’s possible, but uncertain.

“I don’t have a crystal ball on this one,” he said. “But I think it’s only a matter of time before the US has both Ethereum and Solana staking ETFs.”

Final deadlines for both products fall in October.

The wave of amended Solana ETF filings comes just weeks after the SEC effectively greenlit staking in exchange-traded products. It’s a sharp departure from its prior stance under former Chair Gary Gensler.

Open road

Last month, the agency’s Division of Corporation Finance issued new guidance clarifying that solo staking, delegated staking, and even some forms of staking-as-a-service do not constitute securities offerings.

The statement reversed years of regulatory hostility, during which the SEC targeted centralised providers like Kraken and Coinbase for allegedly offering unregistered securities.

“Providing security is not a security,” Commissioner Hester Peirce quipped in a speech at the time.

Now heading the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, Peirce called the guidance a “coherent path forward” and a welcome change from the Gensler-era reliance on enforcement over clarity.

The policy shift opened the door for ETF issuers to formally pursue staking-linked products, with Ethereum and Solana first in line.

Both already have staking ETPs trading in Europe, including 21Shares’ physically backed products launched in 2019 and 2021.

Despite Ethereum’s larger market cap and earlier start, the firm’s Solana product has attracted nearly double the assets, closing in on $1 billion in AUM.