Spot Solana (SOL) ETFs in 2025: What Investors Need to Know

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

After months of speculation, Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have officially made their debut on Wall Street. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the green light to multiple Solana ETF proposals, marking a historic step in merging blockchain innovation with traditional finance. Leading this new wave, Bitwise's Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) launched on NYSE Arca with a remarkable $56 million in first-day trading volume, setting a new benchmark for ETF launches in 2025.

Together, these launches mark the beginning of a new phase in the integration of blockchain-native assets with regulated financial markets.

Tracing the Path to Solana ETFs

The journey toward Solana ETFs was neither quick nor straightforward, it unfolded over several years of regulatory progress and market experimentation within the broader crypto ETF landscape.

Phase 1: The Crypto ETF Breakthrough

The modern era of crypto ETFs began in January 2024, when the SEC approved the first U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs after years of rejections and legal battles. This watershed moment, led by products like BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), demonstrated the strong appetite for regulated crypto exposure. Bitcoin ETFs attracted over $61 billion in inflows within months, making IBIT the fastest-growing ETF in history.

Following that success, Ethereum ETFs launched in July 2024, offering investors access to ETH's market performance through a regulated vehicle. Though initially slower to gain traction, Ethereum ETFs eventually gathered $14.5 billion in assets by mid-2025, proving sustained institutional demand.

Phase 2: Regulatory Modernization

Two critical regulatory changes paved the way for Solana ETFs:

• In-Kind Redemption Approval (July 2025) - The SEC authorized in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETFs, allowing digital assets to move into regulated funds without taxable sales. This gave institutional investors a more tax-efficient mechanism to allocate existing crypto holdings into ETFs.
• Generic Listing Standards (September 2025) - The SEC introduced new streamlined approval rules for spot cryptocurrency and commodity ETFs. Under these guidelines, issuers no longer needed a lengthy, case-by-case review if the asset met one of three key criteria, existing regulated trading, CFTC-regulated futures, or significant ETF market presence. This reform reduced approval times from 240 days to about 75, clearing the path for Solana ETFs.

Phase 3: The Launch of Solana ETFs

With the regulatory green light in place, several major asset managers, including Bitwise, Fidelity, VanEck, Franklin Templeton, and Grayscale, submitted filings for Solana ETFs. These products offered investors a combination of direct SOL exposure and staking rewards, taking advantage of Solana's ETF-friendly architecture: fast transaction finality, no slashing penalties, and easy staking activation.

The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) became the first to launch, debuting on the NYSE Arca with a remarkable $56 million in first-day trading volume, the strongest ETF launch of 2025. Its success signaled the market's readiness for Solana-based investment vehicles and confirmed that investor appetite for digital asset exposure extended well beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.

What Are Solana ETFs?

Solana Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are regulated investment vehicles that allow investors to gain exposure to Solana (SOL) , one of the most prominent Layer 1 blockchain networks, through traditional brokerage accounts. Instead of directly buying and holding SOL tokens or managing wallets and private keys, investors can purchase shares of a Solana ETF on a regulated stock exchange, such as the NYSE Arca.

Each share of a Solana ETF represents proportional ownership in a pool of Solana holdings or Solana-linked financial instruments. These ETFs mirror the price performance of SOL, giving investors a transparent and compliant way to participate in Solana's market movements without navigating the complexities of cryptocurrency custody or exchange trading.

Unlike futures-based products that rely on derivatives, spot Solana ETFs directly hold the underlying SOL tokens with licensed custodians, providing a more precise reflection of Solana's real-time market value. Some ETFs, such as the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL), also integrate staking, allowing investors to benefit from Solana's native yield (typically around 6-7% annually).

These features position Solana ETFs as a powerful bridge between the decentralized blockchain economy and the traditional financial system, combining institutional-grade security, liquidity, and accessibility with exposure to one of the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystems.

Evaluating the Benefits and Drawbacks of Solana ETFs

As Solana ETFs make their debut on major exchanges, investors are exploring how these products blend traditional finance with blockchain exposure. They offer a convenient, regulated way to invest in Solana (SOL) without directly managing crypto assets, but they also come with certain trade-offs.

In short, Solana ETFs simplify crypto investing through regulated access and liquidity, but investors trade off full control and round-the-clock flexibility. They stand as a key milestone in merging traditional markets with decentralized finance, broadening Solana's reach among institutional and retail investors alike.

Comparison of U.S. Spot Solana ETFs: Bitwise (BSOL) vs Grayscale (GSOL)

This section compares the only two U.S.-listed Solana exchange-traded products: the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) and the Grayscale Solana Trust ETF (GSOL).

Both funds provide direct exposure to Solana (SOL) and integrate staking rewards as part of their total return strategy.

Although neither product is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, they represent the first fully listed Solana spot ETPs on NYSE Arca, offering U.S. investors regulated access to Solana's network yield and market performance.

The following table summarizes key details regarding their structure, fees, custodial arrangements, and current asset metrics.

As of 11/06/2025.

Performance Analysis: Bitwise (BSOL) vs Grayscale (GSOL)

Between October 28 and November 6, 2025, both the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) and the Grayscale Solana Trust ETF (GSOL) began trading on NYSE Arca, showing strong early investor interest. BSOL consistently maintained a higher price level, averaging around $22-25, compared to GSOL's $11-14 range. This premium reflects stronger demand for Bitwise's fully staked structure and larger initial asset base.

Source: Morningstar

Trading activity was also significantly higher for BSOL, averaging more than 2 million shares per day, versus roughly 500 thousand for GSOL. The greater volume suggests deeper liquidity and stronger institutional participation in Bitwise's product.

Source: Morningstar

Overall, both funds mirrored Solana's underlying market trend, declining modestly after launch as early enthusiasm normalized. BSOL currently leads in both liquidity and price stability, positioning it as the dominant U.S. spot Solana ETF in the early trading period.

Solana, Ethereum & Bitcoin ETFs: Who's Attracting More Investment Capital?

Between October 28 and November 6, 2025, net inflow data reveals distinct investor sentiment among the three leading spot crypto ETFs - Solana, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. Solana ETFs showed steady positive inflows across nearly all trading days, signaling sustained accumulation and strong early demand following their U.S. debut.

Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, by contrast, experienced several sessions of net outflows, reflecting short-term profit-taking and rotation of capital toward newly launched Solana products. Bitcoin recorded its largest daily outflow on November 4 (-$566 million), while Solana maintained inflows every day of the period, peaking at $70 million on November 3.

Overall, Solana ETFs have emerged as the only category with consistent net positive inflows during this timeframe, highlighting investor enthusiasm for newer layer-1 exposure and staking-enabled returns, while Bitcoin and Ethereum products saw more volatile fund flows tied to broader market movements.

Source: CoinGlass. Data in million USD.

Staking Directly vs Spot Solana ETFs: Which Offers Better Returns?

The launch of Spot Solana ETFs such as Bitwise's BSOL and Grayscale's GSOL has given investors a new way to gain exposure to Solana (SOL). However, when compared to rkSOL, our liquid staking token powered by our own Solana validator, the on-chain alternative delivers higher net yields, full liquidity, and complete transparency.

While ETFs provide exposure through brokerage accounts, they incur management fees of 0.20-0.35% and can only be traded during market hours. In contrast, rkSOL offers a net APY of 6.24%, with no management costs, 24/7 on-chain liquidity, and direct participation in the Solana network through our validator. This allows holders to earn staking rewards continuously while keeping their assets liquid and usable across DeFi platforms.

Unlike ETF structures that rely on centralized custodians such as Coinbase, rkSOL operates in a fully non-custodial environment, giving users complete ownership and visibility of their staked assets. With real-time validator metrics, zero fees, and DeFi composability, rkSOL provides a more efficient and transparent way to capture Solana's staking yield and network growth potential.

As of November 6, 2025

Conclusion

The approval and launch of Solana ETFs mark a defining moment in the evolution of digital asset investing. What began as an experiment in merging crypto with traditional finance has matured into a regulated, yield-generating market accessible to institutions and everyday investors alike. By combining the efficiency of Solana's blockchain with the trust and familiarity of ETF structures, these products have not only expanded access to decentralized assets but also strengthened the bridge between Web3 innovation and Wall Street finance. As Solana ETFs continue to gain traction, they are likely to serve as a blueprint for how future blockchain networks can integrate seamlessly into global capital markets.

As Solana ETFs continue to gain traction, they are likely to serve as a blueprint for how future blockchain networks can integrate seamlessly into global capital markets, while on-chain solutions like rkSOL demonstrate how decentralized staking can complement and even enhance these regulated investment products.

Bibliography

• Helius - The Solana ETF Era Begins
• Ledger - The Best Solana ETFs: A Guide To Investing in the Future of Crypto
• Bitwise - BSOL
• Grayscale - GSOL
• Starke Finance - rkSOL