Solana Hits Milestone As Canada OKs First Spot ETFs

Canada’s financial regulators have given the green light to multiple spot Solana (SOL) exchange-traded funds, marking another cryptocurrency milestone for the country. According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, these new investment products will hit Canadian markets on April 16, 2025.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) allowed multiple financial institutions to roll out these ETFs yesterday, opening the way for direct investment in the Solana cryptocurrency using conventional brokerage accounts.

Four large investment companies have received approval to distribute these new crypto products. 31Q, Purpose Investments, CI Global Asset Management, and Evolve will all be releasing spot Solana ETFs later this week, providing Canadian investors with a variety of choices to invest in SOL.

These firms are long-time participants in Canada’s investment space, and their inclusion marks increasing institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Canada is readying spot Solana ETFs to launch this week after regulator gave green light to multiple issuers incl Purpose, Evolve, CI and 3iQ. ETFs will include staking via TD pic.twitter.com/FSw149Xkm4

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 14, 2025

One of the main features distinguishing these Solana ETFs is their capacity for staking the underlying SOL positions. The OSC has allowed the issuers of ETFs to stake some portion of their Solana, and this could unlock extra returns for investors in excess of price appreciation alone.

TD Bank reported that returns from staking SOL can be higher than those from Ethereum staking, and thus these products could be more appealing to yield-starved investors. The bank also referred to them as “the world’s first spot Solana ETFs,” emphasizing the innovative character of these financial products.

The US market so far has only futures-based Solana ETFs, with limited success. Balchunas noted that two SOL futures ETFs in the United States, Volatility Shares 2x SOL ETF and Volatility Shares SOL ETF, have failed to gain investor attention since their launch in March 2025.

Both of these products have only accumulated a combined assets under management of nearly $14 million. For comparison, the Teucrium 2x XRP ETF performed better even though it came out later after the SOL products, implying unequal investor interest in disparate cryptocurrency ETFs.

As Canada progresses with spot Solana ETFs, their equivalents in the United States languish in limbo. It has had applications from some of the largest financial institutions, such as Grayscale Investments, Bitwise, 21Shares, Canary Capital, Fidelity Investments, and VanEck.

The SEC has accepted these filings but has not approved any for release yet. The regulators last month postponed their consideration of VanEck’s Solana Trust ETF filing, rescheduling the deadline to May 19, 2025.

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView