SEC Delays Decision on Solana ETF - Polkadot and XRP Next in Line

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed a decision on a proposed spot Solana ETF, shifting the crypto industry's attention to June deadlines for funds on Polkadot and XRP.

According to a document dated May 13, U.S. regulators have delayed a decision to list Grayscale's spot Solana Trust ETF on the New York Stock Exchange. The SEC typically delays ETF decisions in increments of 45, 60, or 90 days, up to a maximum of 240 days (about 8 months), so a final decision is expected by late 2024 or early 2025, depending on the original filing date. This comes a week after the SEC delayed its review of Canary Capital's Litecoin ETF application, as reported by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart on X (formerly Twitter).

Spot ETFs are considered key drivers of liquidity and institutional adoption of digital assets. For bitcoin, U.S. spot ETFs have driven a significant share of new investment since their launch, helping BTC return to the $50,000 mark in February 2024, one month after these funds began trading.

While the Solana ETF may only attract a fraction of the volumes that bitcoin ETFs have received, it has the potential to increase institutional adoption of Solana in the long term by offering investors a regulated investment vehicle that could still attract billions of dollars of capital.

Despite the latest delay from the SEC, some investors remain optimistic that the Solana ETF will be approved before the end of 2025. According to data from Polymarket, the largest decentralized betting platform, investors recently predicted an approximately 82% probability of Solana ETF approval and an 80% probability of Litecoin ETF approval by the end of the year, although these figures fluctuate and should be checked for the most current data.

Polkadot, XRP, and Dogecoin ETFs are all awaiting SEC decisions in June

Several other crypto ETF filings are approaching the SEC's June deadlines.

The SEC will decide on Grayscale's Polkadot ETF by June 11 and 21Shares' Polkadot ETF by June 24, according to documents from the regulator.

On June 17, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is due to make a decision on the Franklin Templeton spot XRP ETF and the Bitwise spot Dogecoin ETF, official documents show.

However, those decisions could also be delayed. The SEC typically uses the full 240-day review period when evaluating cryptocurrency-related financial products, as seen in its review of applications for bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in 2023 and 2024. Notably, the final deadline for spot Ethereum ETFs is in May 2024, not June.