Key Takeaways
- VanEck launched the third spot Solana exchange-traded fund in the U.S. on Monday, Nov. 17.
- New offerings from Fidelity and Canary Funds will become the fourth and fifth on Tuesday.
- For now, BlackRock has no plans to enter the field with its own Solana product.
Three weeks after Bitwise and Grayscale launched the first spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S., competition in the space is heating up.
On Monday, Nov. 17, VanEck debuted VSOL on the Nasdaq.
Not far behind, heavyweight asset manager Fidelity and crypto incumbent Canary are gearing up to launch their own Solana funds when markets open on Tuesday.
Solana ETF Field Widens
In their first three weeks of trading, Solana ETFs from Bitwise and Grayscale attracted a cumulative net inflow of over $390 million, according to SoSoValue.
Amid a devastating bear market, BSOL and GSOL presented a rare display of investor confidence during a period when billions of dollars were pulled from Bitcoin and Ethereum funds.
The third U.S.-listed Solana ETF to hit the market was VanEck’s offering. And just as VSOL made its debut on Monday, two more funds were approved for listing.
According to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, Fidelity’s new ETF is slated to launch on Tuesday.
His colleague James Seyffart reported that Canary will also debut its Solana fund the same day.
Fidelity Embraces SOL, But Other Big Guns Stay Away
Compared to the total addressable market, the few hundred million dollars invested in Solana ETFs so far is negligible.
Moreover, history suggests that ETFs offered by financial powerhouses can sit in a different class to those from smaller, boutique managers.
After BlackRock and Vanguard, Fidelity is the largest asset manager in the world, with around $15 trillion in assets under management.
Its spot Bitcoin ETF is the second-largest on the market after BlackRock’s.
Crucially, BlackRock doesn’t appear to have any immediate ambitions in the burgeoning Solana ETF market.
For now, at least, the firm is more focused on diversifying its coverage of blue-chip digital assets with a new Bitcoin fund that incorporates strategies to maximize yield.
With ETF giant Vanguard having ruled out creating any crypto offerings of its own, that leaves Fidelity as the biggest player in the space, placing the firm in a strong position to lap up institutional demand for SOL exposure.
James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
