Cboe BZX Exchange submitted four 19b-4 filings for asset managers to list spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Nov. 21— the same day the United States Securities and Exchange Commission chief confirmed he would resign in January.
If approved, the Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares and Canary Capital-issued spot Solana (SOL) ETFs will be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s BZX Exchange.
Extract from VanEck’s 19b-4 filing to the SEC. Source: CBOE
The 19b-4s inform the SEC of a proposed rule change by a self-regulatory organization such as a financial regulatory body or stock exchange.
They differ from S-1 registration statements, which VanEck and 21Shares already submitted for their Solana ETFs in late June and Canary Capital filed four months later, on Oct. 30.
Meanwhile, Bitwise registered a statutory trust in Delaware for a spot Solana ETF on Nov. 20, indicating that it would put its name in the ring for regulatory approval. The crypto-focused asset manager then filed its S-1 on Nov. 21.
The filings came — coincidentally or not — as anti-crypto SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced he would resign on the day of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
Gensler was supposed to serve until 2026.
His voluntary resignation means one less promise Trump will need to fulfill after the president-elect told the crypto industry that he would fire Gensler on “Day 1.”
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Many industry pundits expect a friendlier crypto regulatory environment, which could result in more crypto ETF filings like those seen on Nov. 21.
A new SEC leadership and more regulatory clarity could see Solana’s potential security status tossed out the window, a 21Shares spokesperson told Cointelegraph:
“We strongly believe that Solana’s native token, SOL, is eligible for inclusion in an ETF as a commodity. In fact, no court has found that SOL as a token itself is a security - which is consistent with numerous court decisions that we have cited in our filings.”
Asset managers have also submitted filings for spot XRP (XRP) and Litecoin (LTC) ETFs. Franklin Templeton filed for a crypto index ETF, though the SEC has delayed a decision on that until early January 2025.
Many industry analysts anticipate inflows into approved spot Solana ETFs may be small relative to what’s been seen with the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs.
That said, Solana has been one of the top performers this bull cycle, increasing more than 2,500% to $254.71, CoinGecko data shows.
It is now 1.2% off its all-time high price of $259.96 set in November 2021.
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