In brief
Cboe BZX has filed with the SEC to list the Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF, offering investors regulated access to Solana, including the potential to earn staking rewards.
The filing argues Solana’s trading volume justifies approval without a futures market surveillance agreement, citing $2 billion in daily volume across major exchanges like Coinbase and Binance.
Yet some are concerned that Solana’s purported centralization and “manipulation” risks could be due to its proof-of-stake model.
Cboe BZX has submitted a formal proposal to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking approval to list shares of the Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF, advancing efforts to bring Solana into regulated U.S. markets.
The filing, submitted on Monday, represents a joint venture between global asset manager Invesco and crypto-focused financial company Galaxy Digital.
The proposed exchange-traded fund would offer investors regulated access to the native token belonging to Layer 1 blockchain Solana through traditional securities markets.
The filing says it would track the “Lukka Prime Solana Reference Rate” and allow for both cash and in-kind creation and redemption of shares.
The rate is a real-time pricing benchmark that aggregates Solana prices from major exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance, updated every 15 seconds to provide fair market value pricing.
The trust may also stake a portion of its SOL holdings through trusted staking providers, potentially generating additional returns for investors.
Solana’s market characteristics justify approval without requiring a surveillance-sharing agreement with a regulated futures market, the proposal says.
Kadan Stadelmann, chief technology officer at Komodo Platform, told Decrypt that proof-of-stake networks like Solana present unique risks for regulated investment products.
Proof-of-stake models create centralization risks since “validators become validators by putting up tokens” rather than computational resources, Stadelmann said.
Stadelmann also warns that “Solana’s thin trading book opens the door for market manipulation” and notes that “few validators control a large percentage of staked SOL, raising risks of potential collusion.”
The Solana ETF filing faces a challenging regulatory environment marked by recent delays and mixed signals from the SEC despite pro-crypto leadership.
On July 30, the agency postponed its decision on Invesco Galaxy’s separate Ethereum ETF staking proposal until September 25, citing the need for “further review.”
Regulatory delays
The SEC has also delayed decisions on multiple other crypto products, pushing back the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF deadline to September 18 and Grayscale’s Solana Trust conversion to October 10.
This month alone, the agency blocked two staff-approved multi-asset crypto ETFs: Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund and Bitwise’s 10 Crypto Index ETF.
Cboe BZX, along with NYSE Arca, meanwhile, have both submitted separate proposals asking the SEC to fundamentally change how crypto ETFs get approved.
The exchanges want certain products to list automatically without case-by-case regulatory review, bringing crypto ETF treatment in line with traditional asset classes.
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