SEC Sets July Deadline for Solana ETF Refilings, Clearing Path for Pre-October Approval

The road to a spot Solana (SOL) exchange-traded fund (ETF) could be much shorter than expected.

The Securities and Exchange Commission asked prospective issuers to respond to comments and re-file amended S-1 documents before the end of July, two people familiar with the matter told CoinDesk.

Technically, the SEC has until October 10 to approve or deny such a fund, but it seems want to accelerate the process and approve one or more of the funds way ahead of that deadline, one of the individuals said.

The reason could be the recent approval of the REX-Osprey SOL and Staking ETF (SSK) which the Commission had no choice but to green-light as it falls under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and therefore received automatic approval unless stopped by the SEC.

SSK started trading last week, becoming the first Solana staking fund on the market, giving it a first-mover advantage over the potential remaining Solana ETFs. This is something that the SEC has previously attempted to prevent, which is why it approved several spot ether (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC) ETFs at the same time.

“I think that the SEC has some pressure to approve these quicker than waiting all the way to October, especially with that Rex Shares product that got approved last week,” one person familiar with the matter said.

In June, the Commission asked issuers to amend their S-1 filings for their requested Solana ETFs and to include language for in-kind redemption and creations as well as staking, which was the first official communication from the SEC regarding those potential products.

The spot Solana ETFs would be the third kind of spot crypto funds on the U.S. market after the approval of the spot ether and bitcoin funds. Other outstanding applications include funds tracking the price of XRP (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Litecoin (LTC), among others.