VanECK researcher shares optimism about Solana ETF

VanEck head of research Mathew Siegel said the market could see a Solana ETF coming next after the landmark approvals of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs.

The asset management firm has filed for the first Solana (SOL) ETF in the US, pioneering the prospect of this financial instrument that would offer institutional players exposure to Solana.

Mathew Siegel Optimistic About Solana ETF

Siegel said the language used in the Ethereum ETF 19b4 forms, which described Ethereum as a commodity by citing its decentralization characteristics, could also work for Solana. In his opinion, if exchanges are willing to sign for Solana the same surveillance sharing agreements that they did for the Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, it could help get a SOL ETF approved.

Besides that, Siegel noted that there are commodity-based ETFs that do not have a Futures Market. This loophole, in his opinion, makes a Solana ETF a possibility. Unlike SOL, both BTC and ETH have their own Futures Market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

Read more: Solana (SOL) Price Prediction 2024/2025/2030

The Wednesday interview preceded VanEck’s move to file for the first SOL ETF in the US on Thursday. The asset manager, headquartered in New York, submitted its S-1 registration form to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

VanEck’s bold move to pioneer a Solana ETF filing marks the second time the asset manager has leveraged its first-mover advantage. It was also the first to lodge an Ethereum spot ETF filing with the SEC in 2021. Although it took almost three years before the financial regulator was ready to engage with prospective issuers. 

VanEck filed a subsequent ETH ETF application in September 2023, participating in the recent wave of applications, alongside BlackRock and Fidelity, among 5 others who await a possible ETH ETF launch. There is a general expectation that the products will go live in early July, and VanEck has already waived fees until 2025 pre-approval.

The Thursday filing also comes 6 days after 31Q filed to launch the same financial instrument in Canada, potentially bringing the first Solana exchange-traded product (ETP) to North America.

Solana ETF Awakens SOL vs. ETH Debate

Siegel challenged backlash that VanEck should have waited for the ETH ETF to launch first, citing competitive business.

“I didn’t realize that competitive business activities constituted dick-wagging,” the VanEck researcher wrote.

Investors have also questioned the likening of Ethereum’s decentralization characteristics to that of Solana. The bone of contention is that the Solana Foundation and related entities own 20% of the SOL supply. This is 100 times more than what the Ethereum Foundation owns in ETH’s supply.

“With the Solana foundation and related entities still owning 20% of the SOL supply, I wouldn’t call it decentralized. In comparison the Ethereum foundation holds about 0.2% of the ETH supply,” Steve Dakh, CTO and founding member of Ethereum, wrote.

The debate of Solana versus Ethereum is longstanding. Parameters such as efficiency, development, and scalability have also come up in the past.

In December, however, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko binned the narrative that Solana is an Ethereum killer. He said it is okay for the two technologies to have overlapping features and compete.

Read more: How To Trade a Bitcoin ETF: A Step-by-Step Approach

“Don’t bring back last cycle “eth killer” bs. It’s lame. Pareto-efficient technologies can have overlapping features and will compete, but that’s all ok. I don’t see a future where Solana thrives and somehow ETH dies. I am such a techno-optimist that I am certain that eventually Danksharding will have enough bandwidth for all of Solana’s data,” Yakovenko wrote.