ETFs Explained

An Exchange-Traded Fund, or ETF, is an investment fund that can hold many different assets which can be bought or sold on an exchange. Many ETFs exist within traditional investment, and they can be organized to cover broad markets (S&P 500, Commodities, Consumer Staples, etc.) or even specific markets or sectors such as Emerging Small Cap Stocks, Precious Metals, and recently added digital assets/cryptocurrency.

There are many different kinds of ETFs, here’s a brief description:

• Passive ETF: Funds that try to mirror the performance of a broad sector or index, such as the S&P 500.
• Bond ETF: Traditionally lower risk ETFs that utilize various bonds, such as government, state, and corporate bonds.
• Industry/Sector ETF: Funds that target very specific sectors or industries, such as Technology, Mid-Caps, or Consumer Staples.
• Active Managed ETF: These ETFs are not managed by software trying to mirror broader indexes, but instead are managed by fund or portfolio managers who decide how to manage the positions within the fund.
• Commodity ETF: Sometimes used to help reduce risk and diversify portfolios, commodity ETFs can focus exclusively on Energy, Gold, Oil, or Agriculture.
• Currency ETF: These funds can track the value of a single currency or a grouping of currencies. These are sometimes called FOREX ETFs and have different types of risk exposure (political, economic, etc.).
• Inverse ETF: If shorting is part of your strategy then an Inverse ETF is right up your alley. Inverse ETFs utilize derivatives to short stocks and are commonly referred to as “Exchange Traded Notes”, or ETNs.
• Bitcoin/Ethereum ETFs: Just approved in 2024, a BTC Spot ETF utilizes Bitcoin as the underlying asset and rewards investors based on price moves. Ethereum Spot ETFs follow the same structure. Bitcoin Futures ETFs have been around since 2021 and use futures contracts that are traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
• Cryptocurrency ETF: A broader cryptocurrency ETF has been in talks for many years, but until recently the focus on spot ETFs revolved mostly on BTC. In the past few months, many asset managers have submitted applications for Spot ETFs to include Grayscale, Bitwise, WisdomTree, VanEck, and Canary just to name a few.

Click on the above image to see the complete list of cryptocurrency ETFs (as of 22 Feb 2025).

Solana’s ETF Status

A Solana Spot ETF has been in discussion for a while, but there have been recent actions which indicate that a Spot Solana ETF is very much a possibility. On 6 Feb 2025, the SEC acknowledged Grayscale’s submission of their Solana ETF Amendment, and 4 other Solana ETF filings were acknowledged by the SEC a few days later on 11 Feb 2025 . Chances of a Solana spot ETF recently received a significant bump when the US President announced that Solana was one of the 5 cryptocurrencies that would be part of that country’s “Strategic Crypto Reserve”.

How long does it take? Solana ETF filings were listed on the Federal Register in February 2025, and the listing triggers a 240-day deadline for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to “engage with the filings”. Engage does not mean approve, but now an October 2025 SEC decision deadline is locked in, and the clock is ticking. Will the recent news from the US regarding Solana being part of the Strategic Crypto Reserve help accelerate approval timelines or improve Solana’s chances of landing a Spot ETF? Time will tell and we will anxiously wait for this hand to be played out.

Solana ETF Applications

As of the end of February 2025, the SEC added five Solana ETF applications to the Federal Register. Grayscale was first to submit (12 Feb 2025) and four others followed about a week later. This list will likely grow over the coming months as new firms and companies seek to launch their own Solana Spot ETFs. We’ll do our best to keep this list current!

Grayscale

VanEck

21Shares

Bitwise

Canary Capital

The SEC’s first Solana ETF decision deadline is for Grayscale’s application. That decision is due on/before 16 Oct 2025.