Photo credit: VanEck

Investment manager VanEck has submitted a Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) filing in the United States with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Analysts, however, say it could only get approval if there is new management at the White House.

“I am excited to announce that VanEck just filed for the FIRST Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US,” said Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, in a June 27 X post.

The VanEck Solana Trust will be listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange, the filing shows. Any portion of the fund’s SOL will not be used to earn staking rewards and additional SOL or to generate income or other earnings.

In 2021, crypto asset manager and Bitcoin ETF issuer Grayscale launched the Solana Trust Fund, which was made available to eligible individual and institutional accredited investors. The fund functions the same as Grayscale’s other single-asset investment trusts.

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Solana: A better commodity than Ether

VanEck argued that Solana (SOL) functions like other digital commodities, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), and has high utility within the Solana ecosystem. The ETF issuer believes Solana’s scalability, speed, and low costs make it an attractive investment option.

“We believe the native token, SOL, functions similarly to other digital commodities such as Bitcoin and Ether. It is utilized to pay for transaction fees and computational services on the blockchain. Like ether on the Ethereum network, SOL can be traded on digital asset platforms or used in peer-to-peer transactions,” Sigel wrote.

SOL ETF possible with change in POTUS

Despite some optimism surrounding the announcement, as reflected in SOL’s price uptick, some industry observers say a Solana ETF will have difficulties getting the SEC approval. Unlike Bitcoin and Ether, the VanEck Solana ETF won’t have a futures-based counterpart. Additionally, the SEC previously classified SOL as a security, prompting several exchanges, including Robinhood, Bakkt, and eToro, to delist the altcoin.

However, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart thinks that a SOL ETF approval and launch by 2025 leans on a change in US leadership.

Fellow Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas echoed the sentiment, saying that while he thinks a Solana ETF will never get approval due to the absence of Solana futures, such a product is possible if there’s a change in the US presidency.

Seyffart clarified that VanEck has only submitted an S-1 registration statement, with the key Form 19b-4 filing yet to be submitted to the SEC to determine a deadline.

The US presidential elections are slated for Nov. 5.

SOL’s price spiked on the back of the news, surging 9% on June 27, 6 p.m. GMT to $148.01, per CoinGecko data. At the time of writing, its price has since settled at $144.33, up 6.5% in the past 24 hours.

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