Spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds are approaching two years of live US trading, and a newer wave of Solana ETFs launched through 2025 and 2026 is testing how far the crypto ETF model extends beyond Bitcoin.
How a spot Bitcoin ETF holds the coin
A spot Bitcoin ETF buys and holds real bitcoin rather than futures contracts or derivatives. Shares track a benchmark such as the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, and a custodian keeps the underlying coins in cold storage on behalf of shareholders. The structure removes the need for investors to run their own wallets or manage private keys, which is the main reason banks and wealth managers adopted these funds so quickly after the US approved the first batch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), launched on 5 January 2024, is the largest of roughly a dozen spot Bitcoin ETFs trading in the US. IBIT reported net assets of $59.7 billion as of 15 September 2026, according to BlackRock’s own fund page, more than any competing Bitcoin fund and larger than many long-established commodity ETFs. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), the fund that converted from a closed-end trust when the category first launched, are the next-most-cited names in the same peer group of issuers.
Solana ETFs add a feature Bitcoin funds don’t have
Solana runs on a proof-of-stake network, so holders can lock up SOL to help validate transactions and earn additional SOL as a reward. Solana ETF issuers built that mechanic into the fund itself: shareholders get price exposure to SOL plus a share of the staking yield, net of fees, something no spot Bitcoin ETF offers, because Bitcoin’s proof-of-work design has no staking to capture.
REX-Osprey was first to market. Its SOL + Staking ETF (ticker SSK) launched on 2 July 2025 and passed $100 million in assets within 12 trading days, according to the fund’s own announcement. Bitwise followed with the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) on 28 October 2025, which has since passed $500 million in assets, as reported by CNBC. Canary Capital listed the Canary Marinade Solana ETF (SOLC) on 18 November 2025, built around Marinade’s liquid staking protocol. VanEck, Franklin Templeton and 21Shares have since brought their own Solana products to market, listed as VSOL, the Franklin Solana Trust (ticker SOEZ) and the 21Shares Solana Staking ETF (ticker TSOL). Bitwise’s own SEC exchange-listing filing for BSOL shows the same Form 8-A12B pattern each of these issuers used.
Why so many Solana ETFs arrived within months of each other
The funds share a common regulatory path. SEC filings show issuers registering their Solana products for exchange listing on Form 8-A12B, the standard form used to list a class of securities on a national exchange, rather than seeking a one-off exemptive order for each individual fund. That is close to the route spot Bitcoin ETFs settled into once the first wave was approved, and it explains why five separate Solana issuers reached the market inside about five months of each other.
What the crypto ETF numbers mean for institutional investors
The gap between the two asset classes remains wide. IBIT’s $59.7 billion in net assets is far larger than any individual Solana fund’s reported total so far, reflecting Bitcoin’s two-year head start, deeper liquidity and a larger market capitalisation. For allocators, the practical read is that a crypto ETF is no longer a single Bitcoin-only decision: it now spans a Bitcoin fund built for pure price exposure and a growing set of Solana funds pitched on price exposure plus a staking yield. Custodians serving both fund types are extending similar infrastructure to other tokenised assets, including the way tokenised Treasuries move into collateral workflows on trading desks. For a compliance or product team at a bank, the near-term question is less whether to offer crypto exposure and more which structure, a plain price-tracking Bitcoin fund or a staking-yield Solana fund, fits a given client mandate. A fuller list of active crypto and digital-asset infrastructure providers sits on Fintechly’s crypto sector directory.
Frequently asked questions
Why did REX-Osprey convert SSK from a grantor trust to a regulated investment company?
REX-Osprey announced the conversion of SSK to a registered investment company structure, a change from the grantor trust model used by most spot Bitcoin ETFs. A regulated investment company structure gives a fund more flexibility to hold multiple assets and pass through income differently, which matters once a fund is generating regular staking rewards rather than sitting on a single static asset.
Can a Solana ETF lose value if a validator is slashed?
Staking on Solana carries validator risk: a validator that behaves incorrectly can be penalised, and any SOL staked through that validator can be affected. Issuers manage this by spreading staked SOL across multiple validators rather than concentrating it with one operator, though the underlying slashing risk is a real feature of proof-of-stake staking that a Bitcoin ETF does not carry.
Do Solana ETF staking rewards get paid out or reinvested?
It depends on the fund. SSK pays distributions monthly, while BSOL and SOLC currently report no set payout frequency, meaning staking rewards accrue inside the fund’s net asset value rather than being distributed as cash. Investors comparing Solana ETFs need to check each issuer’s own distribution policy rather than assume they all work the same way.
Why does IBIT dominate assets while so many Solana funds compete for a smaller pool?
IBIT has had almost two extra years to gather assets, a head start that compounds through liquidity, index inclusion and adviser familiarity. Bitcoin’s market capitalisation is many times larger than Solana’s too, which caps how much capital a Solana-focused fund can realistically absorb relative to a Bitcoin one, regardless of how many issuers compete for it.
