Volatility Shares, a burgeoning ETF organization, is poised to introduce the first-ever exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to the Solana price. As stated on the Volatility Shares’ Florida-based official website, the firm is scheduled to roll out two exchange-traded funds this Thursday.
The maiden ETF, coined as Volatility Shares Solana ETF (ticker SOLZ), grants investors a chance to partake in Solana futures contracts. The second fund, known as Volatility Shares 2X Solana (ticker SOLT), aims at “providing daily investment outcomes…equivalent to twice the return of Solana’s price.”
While it’s improbable that the asset manager could match the billions in funds allocated to spot bitcoin ETFs tracking bitcoin and ether’s prices, a successful launch of Solana-based offerings by Volatility Shares could be an indicator that spot SOL ETFs are imminent. Earlier in the month, Franklin Templeton emerged as the most significant asset manager to register for a Solana-based ETF.
Solana futures trading made its debut on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, on Monday. However, futures for the cryptocurrency, which ranks as the sixth most valuable blockchain by market cap, initially garnered little attention from traders, especially when compared to the crypto futures market’s pioneers, bitcoin and ether.
Volatility’s Solana ETFs have already been listed on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a crucial step towards trading eligibility. Unlike spot ETFs that directly hold the underlying asset, these are futures-based, implying they monitor Solana prices via futures contracts instead of directly holding SOL tokens. SOLZ and SOLT will have expense ratios of 0.95% and 1.85%, respectively.
Volatility Shares, in December last year, filed for three new ETFs planning to gain exposure to Solana futures contracts offered on CFTC-regulated exchanges. The fund’s prospectus clarified that the fund would invest in contracts “that trade only on an exchange registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC],” even though neither such a product, nor a spot Solana ETF, currently exist.
Several other asset managers, including 21 Shares and VanEck, have also applied to list spot SOL ETFs. VanEck was the pioneer firm to submit an application for such a product with the SEC in June.
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