Invesco and Galaxy Digital File for Solana ETF with SEC

Invesco and Galaxy Digital have filed for a spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This move, if approved, would result in the Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF directly tracking the price of Solana (SOL), the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. This filing adds to the growing list of potential spot and future ETFs awaiting approval, highlighting the increasing interest in the Solana ecosystem. The proposed ETF aims to track the cryptocurrency’s market performance and would be listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange under the ticker “QSOL.” The fund will directly hold SOL, the native token of the Solana blockchain.

Invesco’s entry into the Solana ETF space signals growing institutional interest in altcoins, potentially driving market expansion. Joining heavyweights like VanEck, Grayscale, Bitwise, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and 21Shares, Invesco’s move indicates growing institutional confidence in Solana's long-term value proposition. These firms are all betting that the demand for Solana exposure — especially via regulated and accessible investment vehicles — is substantial enough to warrant SEC approval.

A notable feature of the Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF is its custodial and staking structure. The fund will use Coinbase Custody to securely hold its underlying SOL assets. Furthermore, the filing reveals that the ETF may occasionally stake a portion of its assets through “trusted staking providers.” Staking — locking up tokens to help secure the network in exchange for yield — has become an increasingly popular strategy among crypto investors seeking passive returns. The ETF would receive additional SOL tokens as staking rewards, which the filing states could be treated as taxable income to the trust. This staking provision aligns with similar updates made by competing Solana ETF applicants earlier this month. By integrating staking, these ETFs aim to enhance yield potential for investors, a move that could make them more attractive relative to traditional crypto funds.

The wave of Solana ETF filings comes at a time of renewed optimism in the US crypto sector. The administration has signaled its intent to reduce regulatory barriers for digital assets, a shift that has already catalyzed billions of dollars in institutional Bitcoin investment and sent prices to new all-time highs. This deregulatory stance appears to have emboldened asset managers to move forward with ETF products that just months ago seemed politically and legally infeasible. The push for Solana ETFs mirrors the aggressive expansion of crypto integration into traditional finance, as public companies continue to raise capital for long-term digital asset holdings.

The simultaneous nature of the nine filings suggests that, if approved, all Solana ETFs will launch concurrently — likely to avoid giving any single firm a first-mover advantage. The list of current bidders now includes Invesco & Galaxy Digital, Grayscale, VanEck, Bitwise, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, 21Shares, and Canary Capital. While all of these issuers — except Canary — have already launched spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, Canary has stood out for its aggressive push to introduce ETFs tracking a broader range of altcoins. Whether the SEC will greenlight all applications remains to be seen, but analysts believe concurrent approval is the most probable scenario.

A greenlight from regulators could mark a watershed moment not only for Solana but for altcoins more broadly. It would also validate Solana's increasing prominence in the decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible token (NFT), and Layer 1 blockchain sectors — areas where it has increasingly challenged Ethereum’s dominance. For institutional and retail investors alike, a regulated Solana ETF offers a safer, more convenient way to gain exposure without navigating the complexities of self-custody or crypto exchanges. If this wave of ETF approvals materializes, the summer of 2025 may be remembered as the beginning of the “Altcoin ETF Era,” with Solana leading the charge.

Solana’s native token, SOL, saw a minor pullback on Tuesday — after briefly touching $147.73 earlier in the session. The dip came amid heightened trading volume and renewed commentary from Syncracy Capital Co-Founder Ryan Watkins, whose latest remarks are reinforcing bullish narratives around Solana’s role in the future of the crypto economy. The session’s high and subsequent retracement illustrate a common pattern among top-performing crypto assets that are seeing both institutional interest and macro-level validation. In Solana’s case, those tailwinds appear to be growing stronger despite near-term price softness.

Watkins: Solana to Lead the “Tokenization of Everything” The latest momentum in market discussion came after Ryan Watkins revisited his bold May forecast, which positioned the competition between Solana and Hyperliquid as the defining contest in the next phase of the blockchain economy. In a new post on X (formerly Twitter) published June 25, Watkins asserted that Solana now appears poised to lead the “tokenization of everything” — a phrase increasingly associated with the digitization of real-world assets, financial instruments, and equities on permissionless blockchains. Watkins’s thesis contrasts Solana’s future with that of Hyperliquid, another high-performance chain, which he sees dominating the perpetual futures space. His bifurcated vision underscores two key narratives gaining traction in the broader digital asset landscape: the migration of capital markets onto public blockchains and the institutional appetite for decentralized derivatives.

Back in May, Watkins speculated that the winner of the Solana-Hyperliquid race could eventually mature into a platform worth between $100 billion and $500 billion, depending on how successfully it absorbs market share from both traditional finance and competing Layer-1 networks. This bold projection now carries added weight given recent developments: record-breaking CME Futures volume for SOL and the sustained influx of institutional investors seeking exposure to alternative Layer-1 blockchains. Watkins’s remarks are seen as a reinforcement of the narrative that Solana is no longer just a high-speed alternative to Ethereum, but a core player in a future financial system increasingly governed by decentralized protocols.

Solana’s efficient transaction processing, low fees, and growing developer ecosystem make it an ideal candidate for powering large-scale tokenization of assets. From stablecoins to real-world assets like stocks and real estate, multiple projects are already experimenting with bringing financial instruments onchain using Solana’s infrastructure. This is further bolstered by the growing interest from traditional financial institutions and asset managers. With major players like Franklin Templeton already issuing tokenized funds on Solana and a possible Solana ETF approval on the horizon, the network’s institutional footprint is expected to expand significantly.