SEC Opinions Grayscale’s Solana ETF Submitting, Indicating Attainable Shift in Crypto Regulation

The U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) has acknowledged Grayscale’s submitting for a Solana-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).

It’s the first time the company has engaged with an ETF proposal monitoring a cryptocurrency that was as soon as thought-about a safety.

‘A Constructive Signal’

The acknowledgment, relayed on February 6, caught many without warning, provided that simply six weeks in the past, the regulator, then led by former Chair Gary Gensler, requested the Chicago Board Choices Trade (CBOE) to withdraw related Solana ETF filings.

Breaking the information on X, ETF knowledgeable James Seyffart identified that the regulator’s motion was notable as a result of it had beforehand refused to interact with different firms that had tried to file SOL-based exchange-traded merchandise. Additional, he steered it may very well be a “optimistic signal” for crypto corporations, together with exchanges, that the SEC has sued over claims that Solana is a safety.

Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, shared related sentiments, calling it a “notable growth” and including:

“We are actually in new territory, albeit only a child step, however seemingly the direct results of management change.”

Earlier within the yr, Seyffart had mentioned that proposals for ETFs monitoring the world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap could face delays till 2026 due to ongoing lawsuits involving the classification of SOL as a safety. The SEC had taken separate authorized motion towards Binance and Coinbase, accusing the exchanges of providing unregistered securities for itemizing tokens comparable to Solana and Cardano.

Grayscale, the most important digital asset supervisor on the earth, first utilized to transform its Grayscale Solana Belief into an ETF in the direction of the tip of final yr. It launched the product barely greater than three years in the past, and as of the beginning of this month, it had over 7 million shares excellent.

Accepting its submitting is simply step one in a prolonged course of. The regulator now has a 240-day window to approve or deny the proposal.

CBOE Recordsdata XRP ETF Requests

Elsewhere, the CBOE has filed 19b-4 varieties on behalf of a number of crypto funding corporations, together with Bitwise, Canary Funds, WisdomTree, and 21Shares, for XRP ETFs. The paperwork signify the subsequent stage within the approval course of, following the submission of S-1 registration statements.

Whereas their validation is way from assured, the SEC’s latest engagement with Litecoin ETF proposals suggests there may very well be a extra favorable setting for crypto-based monetary merchandise going ahead.