Solana’s first ETF goes live as crypto analysts predict surge of new altcoin funds

The Coins·CryptocurrencySolana’s first ETF goes as crypto analysts predict surge of new altcoin fundsBY Ben WeissBY Ben WeissCrypto ReporterBen WeissCrypto ReporterBen Weiss is a crypto reporter at Fortune

SEE FULL BIOSolana is one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization

Illustration by FortuneFirst Bitcoin, then Ethereum, and now Solana

The crypto industry is flooding traditional with assets pegged to cryptocurrencies that mom-and-pop investors can buy up from their brokerage accounts

On Wednesday morning, the first Solana exchange-traded fund, or ETF, went on Cboe BZX, a stock exchange based in Chicago

Dubbed the REX-Osprey SOL and Staking ETF, the fund is available to investors who want exposure to Solana, one of the top cryptocurrencies whose market capitalization is $81 billion, according to data from Binance

When they were first launched, cryptocurrency ETFs seemed exotic to many retail investors, but the successive debut of a Bitcoin, Ethereum, and now a Solana fund suggest the ducts are gaining a broader appeal

The ETFs also represent an entry point for new crypto investors at a time when brokerages Vanguard don’t let their users plug into a crypto exchange and buy the newest, hottest token

The arrival of spot crypto ETFs, or traditional market wrappers around the current price of a cryptocurrency, allow traditional and institutional investors to allocate a portion of their portfolio to crypto

For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission blocked the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U. , even though similar ducts were available in Europe

The SEC worried that the crypto-tied assets would be ne to market manipulation

Grayscale, a crypto investment firm, battled the regulator in the courts, and, in October 2023, a judge said the SEC’s rejections of Grayscale’s application for a spot Bitcoin ETF were “arbitrary and capricious. ” In January 2024, a slew of spot Bitcoin ETFs went, including an entry into the category from the asset management titan BlackRock

Since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, almost $50 billion have poured into the investment ducts, according to data from SoSoValue

And then, other issuers filed ETF applications for a slew of other cryptocurrencies, including Solana. “I frankly think it would have been more difficult with the previous administration,” said King, the CEO of REX Financial

Now, amid a more friendly financial regime under President Donald Trump, analysts anticipate that the SEC will apve many of the applications to launch cryptocurrency-tied funds. “We expect a wave of new ETFs in this second half of 2025,” James Seyffart, a re analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said on X

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