- Institutional curiosity in a Solana futures ETF has been lacklustre.
- The XRP token has seen better liquidity and commerce quantity than Solana this 12 months.
Solana could have been the most well liked cryptocurrency on the planet final 12 months however institutional traders stay cautious of the Ethereum rival.
That’s the upshot from the “unremarkable” debut exchange-traded funds for Solana futures made throughout their first week of buying and selling, in line with crypto information agency Kaiko.
CME Group, one of many world’s largest marketplaces for derivatives, launched its Solana futures product March 18.
There was $12 million in buying and selling quantity, far lower than related merchandise launched for Bitcoin and Ethereum up to now.
And a better share of that quantity got here in smaller contracts focused towards retail, somewhat than institutional, traders, in line with Kaiko.
XRP vs Solana
In the meantime, XRP has supplanted as the most important cryptocurrency on a roll.
Bitcoin, Ether, Binance’s BNB token, Solana, Cardano and Tron’s TRX token have every fallen not less than 5% in 2025.
In the meantime, XRP is up greater than 18%.
Furthermore, XRP, which is designed to assist Ripple facilitate cross-border funds, has loved deeper liquidity and spot buying and selling quantity than Solana in 2025, in line with Kaiko.
The Solana ETF’s opening underscores a tough patch for the blockchain and its eponymous token.
In 2024, the blockchain turned the preferred platform to launch memecoins, and the explosive progress of these tokens drove network activity to new highs in January.
However controversy surrounding a number of memecoin tasks have buffeted Solana, together with one which embarrassed the president of Argentina, Javier Milei.
Excluding Ethereum and Dogecoin, the market worth of Solana has plunged greater than every other high 10 token in 2025.
Deeper liquidity
On the similar time, XRP has leapfrogged Solana in a number of metrics regardless of present on a blockchain with little uptake.
Solana used to get pleasure from 4 occasions the spot buying and selling quantity that XRP noticed, in line with Kaiko. Now, XRP spot buying and selling quantity is greater.
And XRP enjoys deeper liquidity than Solana, in line with one measure.
About $3.2 million in XRP must be purchased or bought without delay to maneuver its worth by 1%, in line with Kaiko. The identical determine for Solana is $2.8 million.
Bolstered by its legal victory over the US Securities and Change Fee, XRP is now the fourth greatest cryptocurrency on this planet, with a market worth of $142 billion.
On Monday, the possibilities that the company would approve XRP ETFs hit an all-time high on betting markets.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin is up 5% within the final 25 hours to $87,002.
- Ethereum is down 1.3% to $2,063.
What we’re studying
Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You may attain him at aleks@dlnews.com.
