Solana ETFs: Innovation Continues Through Sell-Off

After a massive year for bitcoin, losses near the end of the year overshadowed an otherwise impressive few months of innovation and regulatory tailwinds. As of November 18, macro uncertainty (i.e., government shutdown, fear of an AI/tech bubble) has erased all gains in bitcoin this year.Following bitcoin’s drop from record price levels, new recent lows have divided the investor base. Some long-horizon investors have reduced exposure in bitcoin, both directly held bitcoin and spot bitcoin ETFs. Spot bitcoin ETFs, for example, have seen $1.5 billion in outflows over the past week. Others, however, including certain institutions and corporate treasuries, have treated price weakness as an opportunity to add. For example, Harvard’s recent filings disclose an almost half billion-dollar position in the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT ). IBIT is now the largest public holding in the endowment’s portfolio. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council also currently has around half a billion dollars in bitcoin funds after more than tripling its IBIT position. Additionally, El Salvador also added $100 million in bitcoin to its national treasury during the sell-off. But despite the long-term bullishness from major players, the start of a potential crypto winter has weighed heavily on overall ETF flows. It has also obscured how quickly innovation in regulated crypto-asset products has progressed. Despite a government shutdown, we saw issuers launch various new altcoin ETFs, including solana, litecoin, and XRP, to little fanfare. Understandably, the sell-off has hit prices broadly across the cryptocurrency market. Many solana ETFs, for instance, are down over 25% since their launch less than one month ago.Why Solana?Many retail-focused advisors and investors understand the bitcoin story (e.g., digital gold) relatively well. However, other digital assets like solana remain obscure. Arguably, solana may be easier to understand than bitcoin, in certain aspects. Think of solana as a technology network that allows users to transact and interact without relying on traditional intermediaries like payment processors or banks. Solana’s origin is not as mysterious as bitcoin. Like many other technologies, an engineer (Anatoly Yakovenko) created it. In fact, solana has really embraced bridging the gap between TradFi and DeFi. The Solana Foundation (a non-profit group that supports and promotes the Solana blockchain) highlights real-world use cases such as payments (Solana Pay integrations) and tokenization of real-world assets like real estate. In October 2025, Solana’s “Hello Wall St.” campaign signaled a push to engage institutional audiences and frame solana as a venue for next-generation capital markets rather than a speculative altcoin. (See the campaign here.)Several Solana ETFs Launch During Crypto Sell-OffThe case for solana ETFs is simple: If you believe there will be increased growth and adoption of the Solana network, solana ETFs allow access to this trend in a straightforward way. The first pure spot solana ETF, the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) was launched on October 28, 2025. The next day, the Grayscale Solana Trust ETF (GSOL) was converted to an ETF. This week, we also saw the launch of the VanEck Solana ETF (VSOL), the Fidelity Solana Fund (FSOL), and the Canary Marinade Solana ETF (SOLC). All of the above funds except for SOLC have a 0% expense ratio for a specified time/amount of assets (more details in the table below). Note that Rex-Osprey released the REX-OSPREY SOL + Staking ETF (SSK ) in July, but this ETF uses a 1940 Act structure where some of its exposure is through holding international ETFs, like the CoinShares Physically Staked Solana ETP.Staking: What’s at Stake?Solana ETFs implement staking, which is a key feature of solana. It’s relatively straightforward to understand staking solana directly: Put some tokens up for staking and receive some back in return. It’s similar in concept to earning interest. In a staking ETF, however, the investor does not typically receive staked rewards back as distributions (except in the case of SSK). Instead, staking rewards will go back into the ETF to increase its net asset value and ultimately affect its return. This means we could potentially see some divergence in price performance among similar solana ETFs. This depends on the percent of assets staked and the staking fees. How each ETF approaches staking will make a difference. Most ETFs state they are targeting 100% of assets to be staked (but may have some flexibility). But the main difference will be staking fees, which will be taken directly from staked rewards (or in some cases, total staked assets). For example, BSOL stakes in-house with its technology partner Helius. There is a 6% staking fee, after an initial three-month waiver on the first $1 billion in assets. GSOL’s prospectus allows a much larger aggregate staking fee (23%) after its own initial waiver period. Therefore, a smaller share of rewards is ultimately retained by the trust. VSOL has a 0.28% fee on total staked assets (rather than rewards earned), also waived for an introductory period. FSOL charges a 15% fee on all staking rewards, both fully waived through May 18, 2026 on the first $1 billion in assets. By contrast, SOLC stakes via Marinade and passes through rewards to the fund (Marinade fees are unspecified). Over a multi-year horizon, these different staking fees could potentially lead to different outcomes in performance.Bottom LineThe latest crypto sell-off has made it easy to ignore how fast the ETF landscape is evolving, particularly beyond bitcoin. While headlines have focused on lower prices and ETF outflows, solana ETFs have quietly launched with some interesting features like staking. As the cycle eventually returns, advisors and investors who did their due diligence on different solana ETFs may be better positioned to decide whether solana belongs in a portfolio. For more news, information, and analysis, visit the Crypto Content Hub.