The optimism generated by cryptocurrency-based ETFs in the United States is facing a new barrier. Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett reported that —according to her sources— the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will reject two of the five applications submitted for solana (SOL)-based ETFs.
According to Terrett, SEC officials have already notified the companies involved of the decision.
These applications correspond to 19b4 processes, a standard requirement for introducing new financial products into regulated US markets.
The consensus among SEC analysts is that it will not consider new digital asset ETFs during the administration of Gary Gensler, the current chairman of the agency, explains the American journalist.
Gensler will step down on January 20, when Donald Trump takes office. So far, five digital asset management companies have filed applications to launch Solana-based ETFs. Among them are VanEck, Canary Capital, 21Shares, WisdomTree and Grayscale.
Despite the news, the market has not seen any significant reaction. The price of solana remains relatively stable, trading above $230.
Terrett also doesn’t think the remaining three applications will be approved. She explains: “The SEC isn’t going to approve just one or a couple of them and not the others. Remember the bitcoin ETFs? Eleven of them launched on the same day.”
According to data from Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, 9 companies have made a total of 16 applications to issue their own cryptocurrency ETFs this year, most of them between July and December 2024.
Firms involved include Hashdex, Franklin Templeton, Bitwise, VanEck, Canary Capital, 21Shares, WisdomTree and Grayscale, which have filed applications for ETFs for bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), solana (SOL), ripple (XRP), litecoin (LTC) and hedera (HBAR).
There are a total of 16 applications awaiting a response. Source: James Seyffart.
Many of these companies have already formally filed the 19b-4 document, crucial for the approval of an ETF by the SEC, while others have not yet done so. Applications that have moved forward with 19b-4 have deadlines that, in some cases, extend to August 2025, especially those ETFs based on solana, the fifth most valuable cryptocurrency on the market.
