Solana futures ETFs launching this week via Volatility Shares while others await approval of spot product

Volatility Shares, an upstart ETF firm, is launching the first exchange-traded funds tied to the price of Solana.

According to the Florida-based issuer's website, Volatility Shares will launch two exchange-traded funds on Thursday. The first ETF, Volatility Shares Solana ETF (ticker SOLZ), gives investors exposure to Solana futures contracts, while the second fund, Volatility Shares 2X Solana (ticker SOLT), "seeks daily investment results ... that correspond to two times the return of the price of Solana."

While the asset manager is unlikely to pull in the billions of dollars allocated to the spot bitcoin ETFs that track the price of bitcoin and ether, Volatility Shares successfully launching their Solana-based products could signal that the launch of spot SOL ETFs is right around the corner. Earlier this month, Franklin Templeton became the largest asset manager to file for a Solana-based ETF.

"We were first to file for these ETFs, which allows us to launch first," Volatility Shares co-founder and CEO Justin Young told The Block, adding that his firm had a total of $3 billion in assets under management.

On Monday, Solana futures trading debuted on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME. Futures for the cryptocurrency, which is the sixth-most valuable blockchain by market cap, initially generated little interest among traders when compared to predecessors of the crypto futures market, bitcoin and ether.

Volatility's Solana ETFs

Volatility's ETFs have already listed on the Depository Trust Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a key step for trading eligibility. Unlike spot ETFs, which directly hold the underlying asset, these are futures-based, meaning they track Solana prices through futures contracts rather than holding SOL tokens directly. SOLZ and SOLT will carry expense ratios of 0.95% and 1.85%, respectively.

Last December, Volatility Shares filed for three new ETFs that would gain exposure to Solana futures contracts offered on CFTC-regulated exchanges. At the time, the fund's prospectus clarified that the fund will invest in contracts "that trade only on an exchange registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC]," despite that neither such a product, nor a spot Solana ETF, currently existing. 

"This is wild," Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in response to the news at the time, adding that the filing was a "...good sign Solana futures [are on the] way which arguably bodes well for spot [ETF approval] odds."

Other asset managers have filed to list spot SOL ETFs, including 21 Shares and VanEck, the first firm to submit an application for such a product with the SEC in June.