Solana Drops 2.003% Amid Market Volatility, 21Shares Files for Spot ETF

Solana's latest price was $177.69, down 2.003% in the last 24 hours. This price movement reflects the ongoing volatility in the cryptocurrency market, where investor sentiment and market dynamics play a significant role in determining the value of digital assets. The recent price action of Solana is indicative of the broader trends in the crypto space, where fluctuations are common and can be influenced by a variety of factors, including regulatory developments, technological advancements, and market speculation.

21Shares has filed an updated S-1 for a Spot Solana ETF, marking a significant development in the cryptocurrency sector. This filing addresses regulatory feedback and enhances transparency and compliance, bringing the product closer to SEC approval. The Spot Solana ETF aims to provide investors with direct, regulated exposure to Solana, eliminating the need for direct asset custody and offering a familiar ETF structure. This move signals growing institutional interest in Solana and the broader digital asset ecosystem. The updated S-1 filing by 21Shares is a critical step toward launching a Spot Solana ETF, which would offer investors direct, regulated access to SOL. This product aims to simplify crypto investing by eliminating the need for direct asset custody and offering a familiar ETF structure. The filing addresses SEC concerns, enhancing transparency and compliance, which is crucial for regulatory approval. Spot ETFs hold the underlying asset, ensuring that the fund’s value closely tracks the real-time price of Solana. In contrast, futures ETFs rely on contracts that can diverge from spot prices due to market factors. The Spot Solana ETF’s direct exposure reduces tracking errors and appeals to investors seeking straightforward crypto investment options.

Play Solana has unveiled a new Limited Edition of its PSG1 handheld device, created in partnership with NFT project Pudgy Penguins. The PSG1 Limited Edition was announced on Wednesday via the Solana Floor account on X. While Play Solana did not release full specifications for the device, it confirmed that the exclusive version will retail for $349. A more detailed statement of the hardware and other collaborative elements is expected on Friday. As part of the partnership, Play Solana has committed to buying and burning the $PENGU token for every unit sold. The PSG1, or Play Solana Gen1, was announced in September 2024 as the Solana network’s first official handheld console built for blockchain-based games. It runs on the Rockchip RK3588S Octa-Core ARM CPU and is equipped with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB eMMC flash storage. The console has a built-in hardware wallet secured by PlaySolana’s proprietary SvalGuard system. Additional features include a capacitive rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and connectivity via WiFi 6.0 and Bluetooth 5.4. Although it is unclear if the Limited Edition will carry any hardware upgrades, it has a Pudgy Penguin stock image at the back with the same 3.92-inch OLED display, retro-inspired vertical design, capacitive multitouch technologies, and a resolution of 1240 x 1080. The partnership with Pudgy Penguins could mean that exclusive design elements and more pre-installed content could be part of the offering. The collaboration comes just over a month after the Pudgy Penguins team launched a skill-based Web3 game titled Pengu Clash, built on The Open Network (TON) blockchain. The game could be part of what’s present in the PSG1 limited edition Pudgy Penguins console. Pengu Clash has a play-to-win system focused on user-versus-user wagers and competitive gameplay. “Play-to-win, in essence, is a skill-based game,” said Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins. “Users wager against one another versus play-to-earn, where you’re earning tradable currency that the game provides.” The game can be accessed through the Pengu Clash bot via Telegram and has several modes and objectives powered by Elympics for multiplayer and skill-based challenges. According to Netz, the decision to build on TON was meant to tap into Telegram’s untapped audience. “Telegram has a whole different user base than we’ve had access to in the past,” he surmised, adding that the platform has numbers in every continent.

Decentralized CDN Pipe Network aims to change all that with Firestarter Storage, an infrastructure play designed to transform Pipe into a full-stack Cloudflare alternative for the Solana ecosystem. Until now, Pipe has operated behind the scenes, powering Solana’s full proof-of-history archive and snapshots via its Firestarter infrastructure. Now, with Firestarter Storage, Pipe graduates from decentralized transport to a full-stack cloud competitor, combining origin storage, CDN delivery and edge compute into a Cloudflare-class system — but decentralized from the ground up. Developers can tap into the same backbone to serve anything from pay-as-you-scroll video to edge-optimized AI workloads. “Storage from day one has been a critical element of Pipe Network’s service as a decentralized CDN running a global network of over 280,000 points-of-presence (PoP) node operators,” said David Rhodus, founder of Permissionless Labs. “This would be impossible without origin support, which is already holding Solana’s full data set — 1 PB containing 350 million files — and cutting sync time by up to 30% through Solana Snapshots.” Unlike legacy CDNs, Firestarter serves content directly from Pipe’s native storage layer, meaning it never leaves the Pipe Network. Content lives entirely within the decentralized system, with pricing bundled at the protocol level — 1 $PIPE token per gigabyte for the base tier. For developers, this manifests entirely new architecture capabilities: streaming micropayments per byte, geo-pinned smart contracts with hard data sovereignty guarantees, and pop-level compute for edge inference and ultra-low-latency gaming. “Pipe’s unified fabric lets frontend code stream satoshi-sized, onchain payments per byte, so devs can launch pay-as-you-scroll video and per-query dataset APIs instead of.

Solana has seen substantial whale transactions throughout July 2025, with significant holders collectively moving over 5 million SOL tokens. This level of activity highlights continued engagement among major participants within the Solana ecosystem. On the network development front, DoubleZero has introduced a new stake pool designated DZSOL, containing 3 million SOL. This initiative aims to bolster the decentralization of Solana's validator infrastructure by providing participating validators with access to DoubleZero's high-speed fiber network, potentially enhancing network resilience and performance. Correspondingly, network participation surged as investors recently staked 4.1 million SOL tokens. This increase in staking activity demonstrates a commitment to network security and governance among holders. Solana maintains a steady presence within the broader cryptocurrency market, currently holding a market dominance position of approximately 2.56%. Its blockchain continues to be recognized for its technical capabilities in processing transactions rapidly and at a low cost, solidifying its status as a key player among smart contract platforms.