Franklin Templeton Moves Towards Spot Solana ETF Launch

Franklin Templeton, a prominent asset management firm, has taken a significant step towards launching a spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. The company registered the "Franklin Solana Trust" in Delaware on February 10, 2024, through the CSC Delaware Trust Company, which has previously registered crypto trust products for other asset managers.

The registration of the trust indicates that Franklin Templeton may soon file a Form 19b-4 and a Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the proposed ETF. This is a crucial step in the process of launching a spot Solana ETF, which would track the price movement of the world's fifth-largest cryptocurrency, currently valued at $97 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Franklin Templeton is not the only asset manager vying for a Solana ETF. Other firms, such as Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares, and Canary Capital, have also expressed interest in launching similar products. The SEC has acknowledged several applications for spot Solana ETFs, including those from 21Shares, Bitwise, Canary Capital, and VanEck, as well as Grayscale's filing from February 6.

Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas have estimated the odds of an approved spot Solana ETF before the end of 2025 to be around 70%. However, Seyffart has noted that the status of Solana as a security will also need to be resolved before the SEC can analyze it under a "commodities ETF wrapper."

Financial services firm JPMorgan has estimated that an approved spot Solana ETF could attract between $1 billion and $2 billion in net assets over the first year. Balchunas has described this prediction as a "reasonable guess." As of now, Solana is trading at $198.5, down 1.5% over the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.