SEC delays Solana ETF as decisions for Polkadot, XRP loom

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pushed back its decision on a proposed spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the cryptocurrency industry now looking to the deadlines for the Polkadot and XRP-based ETFs in June.

The SEC pushed its decision on listing Grayscale’s spot Solana (SOL) Trust ETF on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to October 2025, according to a May 13 filing by the securities regulator.

The decision came the week after the SEC delayed its ruling on Canary Capital’s Litecoin (LTC) ETF, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart wrote in a May 5 X post.

Spot ETFs are viewed as key drivers of liquidity and institutional adoption for digital assets. For Bitcoin (BTC), the US spot Bitcoin ETFs accounted for an estimated 75% of new investment after launching, which helped BTC recapture the $50,000 mark in February 2024, a month after the ETFs debuted for trading.

While a Solana ETF may generate only a fraction of the inflows of Bitcoin ETFs, it could increase Solana’s institutional adoption in the long term by offering investors a “regulated investment vehicle” that may still attract billions of dollars in capital, Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, told Cointelegraph.

Related: Solana co-founder proposes meta chain to fix blockchain fragmentation

Despite the latest delay by the SEC, the majority of investors are optimistic about the approval of a SOL ETF before the end of 2025.

Investors are predicting an 82% chance for a SOL ETF approval and an 80% chance for a Litecoin ETF approval before the end of the year, according to data from Polymarket, the largest decentralized betting platform.

Related: $1B Bitcoin exits Coinbase in a day as analysts warn of supply shock

Several other crypto ETF applications are approaching SEC deadlines in June.

The SEC will decide on Grayscale’s Polkadot (DOT) ETF by June 11, and 21Shares’ Polkadot ETF on June 24, according to a court filing from the SEC.

On June 17, the SEC is set to make a decision on Franklin Templeton’s spot XRP (XRP) ETF and Bitwise’s spot Dogecoin (DOGE) ETF, official filings show.

However, those decisions may also be delayed. The SEC typically takes full advantage of its 240-day review period when evaluating crypto-related financial products, as seen in its handling of the Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) ETF applications in 2023 and 2024.

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