Cboe Seeks SEC’s Approval After Filing to List Solana ETFs

• The Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) has submitted two applications to list spot Solana ETFs on its platform
• The exchange has asked the SEC to approve the listing of the 21Shares and VanEck spot Solana ETFs
• The SEC needs to decide by March 2025
• One analyst believes that the ETF approval depends on whether Donald Trump is re-elected as US President in November

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (Choe) has filed applications with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list 21Shares and VanEck spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs), requiring the regulator to decide by March 2025.

Cboe filed two 19b-4 form applications on July 8: 21Shares Core Solana and the VanEck Solana Trust. Now that the SEC has received the filings, and under its rules, it must decide within 240 days.

The Cboe  filings come a few weeks after VanEck filed an S-1 for a spot Solana ETF with the SEC, making it the first company in the US to file for one. Following the news, the trading volume of Solana increased 26% to more than $2.8bn.

21Shares also filed its own S-1 application with the SEC in June, stating on X that they “believe this is a necessary step for the crypto industry.”

According to the Cboe, a potential Solana ETF is similar to spot Bitcoin and spot Ethereum funds, adding “much like bitcoin and ETH, the Exchange believes that SOL is resistant to price manipulation and that “other means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices” exist to justify dispensing with the requisite surveillance sharing agreement.”

Outcome of a Solana ETF

Cboe already lists six of the 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs available: ARK/21Shares, Fidelity Wise, Franklin, Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, and Wisdom Tree. If, and when spot Ethereum ETFs are approved by the SEC, Cboe would list five.

It remains to be seen whether or not spot Solana ETFs receive the green light.

However, according to senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the possibility of a Solana ETF depends on whether Donald Trump is re-elected as the US President. Balchunas believes that if Biden wins, the applications are likely “dead on arrival.”

This was a view he shared in June following 21Shares application for a Solana ETF when he said “the odds of a Solana ETF being approved” in the next 12 months may improve significantly if Trump wins this year’s election.