The crypto industry is set to debut the first Solana futures exchange-traded fund (ETF)

The crypto industry is set to debut the first Solana futures exchange-traded fund (ETF), a significant development that may pave the way for the first Solana spot ETF

The crypto industry is preparing for the debut of the first Solana futures exchange-traded fund (ETF), a development that may open the door for the first Solana spot ETF, seen as “the next logical step” by industry watchers.

As reported by Blockworks, Volatility Shares will launch two Solana (SOL) futures ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT), on March 20.

The debut of the first Solana futures ETF may bring massive new institutional adoption for the SOL token, according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.

Volatility Shares Solana ETF SEC filing.

The analyst told Cointelegraph: “The Solana ETF will increase institutional adoption by offering a regulated investment vehicle, attracting billions in capital and reinforcing Solana’s competitiveness against Ethereum.

However, Ethereum’s entrenched ecosystem remains a formidable barrier.”

Still, other industry participants are concerned that the Solana futures ETF will lead to investor disappointment due to a lack of inflows, as we’ve seen with the spot Ether ETF launch, which was only a sidekick to Bitcoin ETFs in terms of inflows, according to Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas.

Solana futures ETF may see lackluster inflows, but spot Solana ETFs may be next

While the futures ETF may not bring huge inflows, it legitimizes Solana’s status as a top cryptocurrency, especially after US President Donald Trump announced that his Working Group on Digital Assets would include Solana in the US crypto strategic reserve, along with Cardano’s (ADA) token and XRP (XRP).

“Solana ETFs are in motion creating the possible avenues for more wide-scale adoption,” according to Anmol Singh, co-founder of Bullet, a Solana-native perpetual futures decentralized exchange.

Singh told Cointelegraph: “We can expect moderate inflows into the futures ETF - spot ETF is generally a better instrument for getting exposure and that will be the major milestone.”

Related: Trump-linked WLFI triples Ether holdings, Solana sees $485M outflows: Finance Redefined

While the adoption rate of futures ETFs is difficult to measure, a spot Solana ETF may attract between $3 billion to $6 billion of net assets in the first six months, eclipsing the adoption rate of Ether ETFs, according to a JPMorgan report seen by Cointelegraph.

SOL and XRP ETPs could attract $3–8 billion.

“When applying these so-called ‘adoption rates’ to SOL and XRP, we see SOL attracting roughly $3 billion-$6 billion of net assets and XRP gathering $4 billion-$8 billion in net new assets,” the report stated.

However, “the timeline could extend into 2026 due to the SEC’s precedent of taking […] 240–260 days to review filings,” James Seyffart, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said on Jan. 16.