A flurry of new crypto spot ETFs launched on Tuesday and Wednesday, which means that mom-and-pop investors can now make investments extra simply in lesser-known cryptocurrencies. Till this week, these investors may solely purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum in ETF kind and, primarily based on preliminary demand, at the least one of the brand new choices is off to a roaring begin.
Based mostly on early demand, the recent new providing is an ETF that gives publicity to Solana, the sixth hottest cryptocurrency. Based on Eric Balchunas, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) had the very best ETF launch of 2025 in any asset class. Demand for different new ETFs, offering publicity to Litecoin and Hedera, was extra muted.
These new choices are vital since, though crypto exchanges like Coinbase have lengthy offered these cryptocurrencies, the ETF wrappers imply investors can get publicity to those property within the kind of shares bought by way of any brokerage.
“For investors, that is about as McDonald’s simple as you will get”, mentioned Balchunas in an interview with Fortune. “It’s low-cost, simple and secure.”
The launch of this newest crop of ETFs comes practically two years after the Securities and Change Fee first opened the door to crypto funds in January 2024. That’s when the company lastly permitted a bid by Blackrock and others to promote Bitcoin ETFs, following a nearly-decade lengthy authorized battle by the crypto business. The primary Ethereum ETFs launched later that yr.
Now, with the launch of ETFs for extra obscure cryptocurrencies, merchants can have entry to a good deeper array of digital property.
On Thursday, BSOL, the Solana ETF issued by the crypto asset administration agency Bitwise, noticed $46 million in its third day of buying and selling quantity. In contrast, the Canary Hedera and Litecoin ETFs noticed roughly $2.3 million and $500,000, respectively, of their third day.
“BSOL did phenomenally properly,” mentioned Hunter Horsley, the CEO of Bitwise, in an interview with Fortune. “And I believe it linked with lots of investor demand.”
Different issuers to launch Solana and Hedera ETFs are Grayscale and Canary, respectively. The race to launch new cryptocurrency ETFs is aggressive, as first movers are higher in a position to domesticate investor loyalty and acquire a leg up on rivals who’re slower to come back to market.
“It’s just like the Ricky Bobby quote, ‘If you happen to’re not first, you’re final,’” mentioned Balchunas. “There’s just a little of that within the ETF world. That’s why there’s such a rush to market.”
A tough received authorized struggle
The hunt for a crypto ETF dates again to as early as 2013, when the Winklevoss twins —whose authorized battle with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg was popularized within the film Social Community—sought approval for a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which monitor the present value of well-liked cryptocurrency, turned a white whale for these within the sector. However, below a number of administrations, the SEC rejected purposes for them, citing the immaturity of the market and the potential for manipulation. In 2021, the company permitted a Bitcoin futures ETF, however not a spot fund.
In 2022, Grayscale, a outstanding crypto asset supervisor, sued the company for permitting futures-based however not spot funds. Grayscale received the case in August 2023. In 2024, a choose few spot ETFs launched to document success. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Belief (IBIT) attracted $70 billion in complete property extra rapidly than another ETF. Its Ethereum fund (ETHA) additionally set document inflows.
Underneath the Trump administration, the floodgates for spot crypto ETFs flew open after the SEC up to date its guidance in July.
However, the lately launched ETFs for Solana, Hedera, and Litecoin seem to make use of new guidance that the SEC issued in the beginning of the continuing shutdown of the federal authorities. Whereas the precise technicalities of how these issuers have been justifying the itemizing of their new funds have been unclear to Balchunas, he mentioned that they have been being opportunistic. “These issuers are very artful. They discovered phrasing in steering put out by the SEC about what to do within the shutdown,” he added.
Balchunas additionally predicted that XRP, the fifth greatest cryptocurrency, could be the subsequent crypto ETF to launch. “If I needed to guess $1,000, I might say it could launch a pair of weeks after the federal government comes again”, he mentioned.
