CoinShares files for Solana spot ETF with SEC

CoinShares filed for a Solana spot ETF with the SEC just days after eight issuers, including 21Shares and Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, Canary Capital, VanEck, Grayscale, and Invesco Galaxy, submitted updated applications. The Trust’s purpose is to hold “SOL,” and its investment objective is for the shares to reflect the performance of the value of a SOL. 

The Form S-1 registration statement listed CoinShares Co. as the sponsor, with Coinbase Custody and BitGo Trust serving as custodians. It also disclosed that the CoinShares will stake, a portion of the Trust’s SOL holdings through one or more trusted staking providers. The portion to be staked will be fixed on or before the launch date of the Trust. CoinShares will receive a portion of the staking rewards generated by staking providers. 

However, CoinShares will not engage in staking activities, including operating a validator node. Instead, the staking program will be operated through its service providers, including the custodians and staking providers. The Trust will be passively managed and will not pursue active management investment strategies or actively manage the SOL held.

Balchunas says Solana is likely to lead ‘Alt Coin ETF Summer’

Coinshares jumping into the Solana spot ETF race w new filing this morning. I think we are up to 8 now. pic.twitter.com/IqJxpSGICd

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) June 16, 2025

Eric Balchunas, a Senior ETF Analyst for Bloomberg, hinted there could be a potential altcoin ETF summer with Solana getting the first spot ETF approval within two to four months. He shared data claiming that Solana ETFs had a 90% chance of approval by the end of this year. Prediction market Polymarket shows a 91% chance that Solana ETFs will receive approval in 2025.

U.S. regulators asked Wall Street firms racing to launch Solana ETFs to revise their paperwork, a sign that the crypto investment products may be available to investors soon. A spokesperson from 21Shares confirmed they wanted to address and file an amended S-1, which the company plans to do as soon as possible. 

The SEC asked issuers to update language surrounding in-kind redemptions and how issuers would approach staking. Bloomberg Intelligence’s James Seyffart believes that anybody who put cash into a product without staking was losing out on yield. He also expected approval for some altcoin ETFs this year, possibly as soon as July but more likely in early Q4. 

“The SEC’s nudge that ETF issuers amend their S-1 filings sounds like it could be just a matter of days or at most weeks before approval becomes official.”

–Noelle Acheson, author of Crypto is Macro Now newsletter

Seyffart said the SEC would likely start focusing on handling 19b-4 filings for Solana and staking ETFs earlier than planned. However, the SEC recently postponed a decision on Grayscale’s Solana ETF, saying it had not reached any conclusions on the 19b-4 filing to list the proposed spot ETF. 

Invesco and Galaxy Digital plan to launch a Solana ETF in Delaware

Invesco and Galaxy Digital are planning to launch a Solana ETF in the United States. Both companies registered a trust in Delaware, a required preliminary step before formally filing an application with the SEC. BlackRock remained the only major player absent from this race.

VanEck, Canary, and 21shares requested the SEC through a joint note to reinstate the first-to-file approval order following the submissions of their updated S-1 applications. In the letter, VanEck chief executive Jan van Eck, Canary’s Steve McClurg, and 21Shares president Duncan Moir asked the SEC to apply the filing-date principle to pending products, including any future Solana ETFs submissions. The letter argued that departures from the queue began in October 2021, when the ProShares Bitcoin Futures Fund received a three-day head start and secured more than 90% of the market share.

VanEck digital assets research chief Matt Sigel has repeated the queue argument, warning that deviations undercut the Administrative Procedure Act’s transparency standard and forced early filers to shoulder prolonged update expenses. He added that refusing to follow this standard created an uneven playing field for issuers who filed earlier and had to wait longer.

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