The first US spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Solana Hedera (HBAR) and began trading on Tuesday, opening a new door for investors seeking regulated exposure to crypto assets beyond bitcoin and ether.
If early momentum holds, Solana’s ETF alone could pull in more than $3 billion in the first 12 to 18 months, according to Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart.
“A good frame of reference is to look at the size of Solana compared to bitcoin and Ethereum,” Seyffart said. “Solana’s market cap is 5% of bitcoins and 22% of Ethereum. If they keep up with the flows we’ve seen for ETH and BTC ETFs on a relative basis, that would equate to about $3+ billion in flows over the first 12 to 18 months. Time will tell if they manage to do that though.”
Bitwise’s Solana ETF (BSOL) debuted on the New York Stock Exchange, trading $10 million in volume in the first 30 minutes, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Eric Balchunas. On Nasdaq, Canary Capital’s Hedera ETF (HBR) and Litecoin ETF (LTCC) posted $4 million and $400,000, respectively.
Balchunas expects BSOL to reach $52 million in volume by the end of the day, with HBR and LTCC expected to reach $8 million and $7 million.
The funds were launched under the Securities Act of 1933, a regulatory structure commonly used for commodity-based ETFs. Unlike funds governed by the Investment Company Act of 1940, ’33 Act products do not require a board of directors or daily portfolio disclosures, making them a preferred format for single-asset crypto ETFs.
CoinDesk Indices provides price benchmarks for both HBR and LTCC.
In comparison, the spot bitcoin ETFs brought in $628 million in flow on their first day across multiple issuers. Spot ether ETFs saw $106 million. Tuesday’s launch contained only one issuer per active, but Grayscale’s Solana Trust, which the firm requested to convert into an ETF, is set to begin trading on Wednesday.
Looking at the potential demand for HBAR and LTC, Seyffart added: “HBAR’s market cap is about 8% of Solana’s size, while Litecoin is 7% of Solana’s. So will likely be much smaller. Again, time will tell.”
