VanEck files for the US Solana ETF sends SOL price soaring 7% in minutes

Cryptocurrency-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are still taking center stage in the U.S., and VanEck’s latest filing also includes Solana, the fifth-largest digital asset.

Shortly after the news broke, the price of the native token soared 7%, reaching $150.

Matthew Sigel, the company’s head of digital asset research, highlighted the development of X. He said the company believes Solana is very similar to Ethereum because it operates as open-source blockchain software designed to handle a variety of applications, including payments, trading, gaming, and social interactions.

He added that unlike Ethereum, Solana operates as a “single global state machine” with no sharding or layer 2 network.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a spot Bitcoin ETF in January of this year after a decade-long fight. However, US regulators are confident that the underlying asset (BTC) is a commodity.

According to the SEC, the securities watchdog reluctantly approved an Ethereum ETF last month, but the launch continues to be delayed as the status of ETH remains uncertain.

Therefore, SOL’s status remains questionable. However, Sigel explained several reasons why VanEck believes SOL is a commodity like ether and Bitcoin.

“We believe that SOL, as a native token, functions similarly to other digital goods such as #Bitcoin and #ETH. It is used to pay transaction fees and computational services on the blockchain. Like ether on the Ethereum network, SOL It can be traded on digital asset platforms or used for peer-to-peer trading.”

The price of SOL reacted immediately to the news, surging 7% in a matter of minutes. The asset fell to $135 amid a market-wide correction, but then surged to $150 after the VanEck announcement.