Bitwise tests tokenized shares for its $861M Solana Staking ETF

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Bitwise Asset Management is exploring tokenized shares for some of its exchange-traded funds, teaming up with fintech firm Superstate to test whether blockchain recordkeeping can sit alongside traditional share ownership without changing what investors actually hold. The move, announced Thursday, targets the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF as the first candidate, though the company is careful to note that nothing is guaranteed yet. For an industry still figuring out how far tokenization can go inside regulated fund wrappers, this is a notable test case.

Key takeaways

Bitwise Asset Management has partnered with Superstate to develop tokenized share recording for select Bitwise funds.
The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) is expected to be the first fund considered for the tokenized option.
Tokenized shares would carry the same economic and voting rights as traditional book-entry shares, with no separate security created.
Investors could choose between book-entry ownership through The Depository Trust Company or blockchain-based ownership via Superstate’s transfer-agency system.
The rollout depends entirely on meeting legal and regulatory requirements, and Bitwise has offered no launch timeline.

Bitwise and Superstate Collaborate on Tokenized Shares

Bitwise Asset Management, which manages roughly $9 billion in client assets across more than 70 investment products, has entered a partnership with Superstate to build a framework that lets certain fund shares exist in tokenized form. Superstate is a fintech company that works with issuers and asset managers to bring securities onto blockchain rails, and it already has a working relationship with Bitwise on other products.

The two firms describe the project as a development effort rather than a finished product. Bitwise has been explicit that there’s “no assurance” the capability will actually launch for any fund, and no timeline has been set. That caution matters: this is a pilot in progress, not a live feature investors can use today.

The first fund in line is the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, trading under the ticker BSOL on NYSE. BSOL was launched in late 2025 and The trust intends to monitor Solana’s value while producing extra Solana via staking activities. The fund’s objective is to stake virtually its entire portfolio through Bitwise’s own on-chain infrastructure, built with partner Helius. Staking rewards, which have historically averaged around 7%, are reinvested rather than paid out in cash, compounding within the fund’s net asset value over time.

Tokenized Shares Retain Traditional Rights with Blockchain Recording

Under the proposed structure, tokenization would only change how ownership gets recorded — not what an investor actually owns. Shareholders would keep buying fund shares through the same brokerage channels they use now, and the economic and voting rights attached to those shares would stay identical regardless of how they’re recorded.

Investors would get a choice. They could hold shares the conventional way, in book-entry form through The Depository Trust Company, or opt for a tokenized version recorded on a blockchain and maintained through Superstate’s transfer-agency infrastructure. “Shareholders could then elect to hold those shares either in traditional book-entry form through The Depository Trust Company or in tokenized form recorded on a blockchain and maintained through Superstate’s transfer agency infrastructure,” Bitwise said in its announcement.

Superstate’s role here is technical but central. The firm runs platforms including FundOS, which supports asset managers building compliant on-chain fund offerings — covering issuance, recordkeeping, and connections to digital markets — all routed through Superstate’s SEC-registered transfer-agency infrastructure. Crucially, tokenized shares wouldn’t create a new, separate security or a synthetic instrument tracking the fund. They would represent the exact same class of beneficial interest as book-entry shares, just recorded differently.

Regulatory and Operational Considerations for Rollout

Whether this ever reaches investors hinges entirely on regulatory approval. Bitwise has stated plainly that availability of the tokenized option depends on satisfying all applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and the company has not committed to a launch date for BSOL or any other fund.

There’s also a built-in limit on how tokenized shares could move. Holdings recorded on-chain would not be freely transferable outside the designated recordkeeping system Superstate maintains. That’s a meaningful distinction from typical crypto assets, where tokens often move freely across wallets and exchanges — here, the blockchain record stays tethered to a regulated infrastructure rather than functioning as an independently tradable token.

Why does this matter for the market? Because it signals how far traditional fund managers are willing to push blockchain adoption while staying inside existing securities regulation. Rather than creating a crypto-native wrapper, Bitwise and Superstate are testing whether a regulated fund can offer an on-chain ownership record as an alternative, not a replacement, to conventional custody. If it works, it could become a template other issuers copy; if regulatory hurdles prove too steep, it may stall as an experiment.

Context and Industry Implications

The tokenization announcement landed just days after Bitwise confirmed a workforce reduction, cutting 14% of its staff and trimming its global headcount to about 155 people. CEO Hunter Horsley told The Block the cuts were meant to better position the firm for its ongoing growth — a detail that frames this tokenization push as part of a broader strategic repositioning rather than an isolated product tweak.

Bitwise has kept expanding its product lineup even amid the layoffs. The firm has filed for or launched funds tied to assets including XRP, Sui, Aave, Zcash, and Tron, and in July amended its proposed NEAR ETF to include staking, naming NYSE Arca, BNY Mellon, and Coinbase Custody in the filing. An earlier 2026 filing also proposed 11 hybrid-structure ETFs, with Coinbase Custody Trust Company named as custodian.

Superstate, meanwhile, has been building out its onchain transfer-agency business well beyond this one partnership. The company registered Superstate Services LLC as a transfer agent with the SEC in March 2025, then expanded its model from funds to public equities through its Opening Bell platform, launched in May 2025 for SEC-registered shares issued on public blockchains. Galaxy Digital used that infrastructure to put its Nasdaq-listed shares onchain in September 2025, with Superstate updating shareholder records as tokens moved between verified wallets. Superstate has also worked with Invesco on a proposed Stablecoin Reserves Onchain Fund and with Coinbase Asset Management on its CUSHY digital credit fund for qualified institutional investors.

Seen against that backdrop, the Bitwise-Superstate collaboration looks less like an isolated experiment and more like one more data point in a broader shift — asset managers testing whether blockchain-based recordkeeping can coexist with, rather than replace, the regulatory scaffolding that governs traditional funds. Whether investor demand and regulatory clarity actually materialize will determine if this stays a pilot or becomes standard infrastructure.