Solana staking exchange-traded funds have a promising future on conventional inventory exchanges after Bitwise’s fund debut on the New York Inventory Change surpassed $56 million in first-day buying and selling quantity.
Matt Hougan, Bitwise chief funding officer, described the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) as “the lacking a part of the puzzle” in dialog with Cointelegraph’s Chain Response each day present, because the product attracted thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funding on the NYSE.
So, @BitwiseInvest Solana Staking ETF totalled $56M in buying and selling quantity after its debut on @NYSE 💰
As @EricBalchunas reported, it is the largest ETF debut in 2026.@Matt_Hougan described $BSOL as “the lacking a part of the puzzle”.
This is why @solana staking ETFs WILL appeal to… pic.twitter.com/syFGy6Dwm9
— Gareth Jenkinson (@gazza_jenks) October 29, 2025
Hougan mentioned that till this level, buyers stood to achieve extra by proudly owning Solana in ways in which allowed them to instantly stake the asset and earn yield than put money into an ETF or product that didn’t enable for staking.
“As soon as you place it into an ETF, you get all the nice issues about an ETF. Extraordinarily low prices, institutional custody. You should buy it in your brokerage account. It is push-button simple. And also you get that staking completed for you,” Hougan mentioned.
“I believe it’ll change into one of many major ways in which folks put money into Solana, globally. I believe it is that large a deal.”
Traders need custody AND staking yield
Hougan unpacked the distinction between typical crypto ETFs like Bitcoin and Ethereum merchandise, which primarily give buyers publicity to the underlying asset. Staking ETFs have a twofold profit for buyers, as Hougan defined.
“In order an investor in one thing like $BSOL, not solely are you getting the returns of Solana, however yearly you get someplace round 7% of extra Solana on high of that. For a TradFi investor, it’s a little bit bit like a dividend in an oversimplified sense.”
Hougan mentioned the product additionally helps decentralize and safe the Solana community. The $BSOL ETF launched $222 million in belongings, amounting to over 1.1 million SOL tokens.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas reported that Bitwise’s SOL staking ETF had the biggest buying and selling quantity of any ETF on debut in 2025.
Regulatory change made Solana staking ETFs doable
Hougan additionally credited a regulatory U-turn within the US as a catalyst for the eventual greenlight for Solana staking ETFs. Throughout Gary Gensler’s time period on the helm of the SEC, Bitcoin and Ether ETFs took years to get the regulatory inexperienced gentle.
The Bitwise government mentioned that Solana staking ETFs wouldn’t have been “even remotely doable” if there had not been a major change in angle towards the cryptocurrency sector from US regulators.
“Even simply Solana unstaked was unimaginable, proper? We barely received Ethereum by way of the Gary Gensler pinhole,” Hougan mentioned. “And there was no approach you had been going to get anything by way of that pinhole. After which so as to add staking on high of it, staking is extra advanced.”
He mentioned plenty of complexities additionally stumped regulators, together with liquidity and tax implications. Nonetheless, the launch of BSOL and Grayscale’s Solana Belief ETF (GSOL) might nicely open the door for different TradFi funding merchandise linked to proof-of-stake protocols.
“Not solely have we completed it now, however this additionally opens the door for quite a lot of different ETPs to launch which have staking as nicely. So this is sort of a main proof-of-concept within the historical past of crypto ETPs within the US.”
Journal: Solana vs Ethereum ETFs, Fb’s affect on Bitwise: Hunter Horsley
