Canary Capital Group, a new digital asset-focused investment firm, has applied for a Solana-based exchange-traded fund (ETF), joining other prestigious asset managers seeking to list a SOL ETF in the United States. Despite Blackrock opting out, Canary Capital is pursuing the spot Solana ETF to provide investors with exposure to SOL without having to purchase and store the cryptocurrency themselves. Solana is considered a key competitor to Ethereum, offering cost-effective and faster transactions. The SEC's concerns over Solana's classification as a security may impact the approval of SOL ETFs.

Canary Capital Group, a new digital asset-focused investment firm created by former Valkyrie Funds co-founder Steven McClurg, has become the latest investment firm to apply for a Solana-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).Canary Capital joins a growing list of prestigious asset managers seeking to list a SOL ETF in the United States, including VanEck and 21Shares.Canary Capital Pursues Spot Solana ETFDespite Bitcoin (BTC) ETF leader Blackrockopting out of the Solana ETF race, some other firms are not shying away from filing to introduce an investment vehicle that would give investors exposure to SOL without having to purchase and store the cryptocurrency themselves.According to anS-1 registration statementfiled on Oct. 30, Canary Capital’s proposed spot SOL ETF would let traditional investors access the Solana market via brokerage accounts without the potential hurdles to entry or risks.It’s worth mentioning that Canary Capital recently submitted S-1s for aspot XRP ETFon Oct. 8 and then aspot Litecoin ETFjust seven days later on Oct. 15. With its latest filing, the firm has not named the custodian and administrator for the SOL ETF, nor did it say what ticker symbol the fund would be listed under.SOL is currently the fifth-largest crypto on the market. The Solana blockchain is used for decentralized applications (dapps), decentralized finance (DeFi), and is home to a slew of meme coins. It’s considered a key competitor to Ethereum as it offers cost-effective and faster transactions.“Despite the hyper-competitive L1 and EVM landscape, Solana has emerged as a battle-tested front-runner for decentralized applications,” Canary wrote in the statement. “Solana’s robust DeFi ecosystem has led to strong sustained on-chain analytics as measured by transactions per day, active addresses, and new addresses, while maintaining a low fee environment for all consumers. Future growth in native on-chain stablecoin deployment will also likely further accelerate the commanding lead Solana maintains over its peers.”Solana has been considered the next digital asset to have a spot ETF greenlighted by the SEC, following Bitcoin and Ethereum approvals in January and July, respectively.Wen Solana ETF?Solana ETF anticipation has spurred huge investor attention since VanEcksubmitted paperworkto launch the VanEck Solana Trust in June 2024. 21Sharesfollowed VanEck’s lead, filing with the SEC to debut its own spot Solana ETF.Asset manager Grayscale recentlyfiledto convert a multi-asset fund into an ETF on the New York Stock Exchange, which features Solana exposure alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, and Avalanche. These filings suggest a rising confidence in Solana’s potential among institutional investors.Franklin Templeton is alsoeyeing a spot SOL ETF, though it has yet to file an application.In the SEC’s pending lawsuits against digital asset exchanges likeCoinbase,Kraken, andBinance, the agency claims that SOL satisfies the Howey Test, thus making it a security. Some industry insiders now think SOL ETFs have anear-zero chance of approvaldue to the SEC’sconcernsover Solana’s classification as a security.However, others believe that with BTC and ETH ETFs already trading on U.S. exchanges, making a logical case to deny Solana the same product is a steep uphill battle for the regulator.

Canary Capital Group Applies for Solana ETF as Competition Heats Up