The first U.S. spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Solana , Hedera (HBAR) and began trading Tuesday, opening a new door for investors seeking regulated exposure to crypto assets beyond bitcoin and ether.
If early momentum holds, Solana’s ETF alone could pull in over $3 billion in the first 12 to 18 months, according to Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart.
“A good frame of reference is to look at the size of Solana in relation to bitcoin and Ethereum,” Seyffart said. “Solana’s market cap is 5% of bitcoin’s and 22% of Ethereum. If they keep up with the flows we’ve seen for ETH and BTC ETFs on a relative basis that would equate to like $3+ billion in flows over the first 12 to 18 months. Time will tell if they manage to do that though.”
Bitwise’s Solana ETF (BSOL) debuted on the New York Stock Exchange and traded $10 million in volume in its first 30 minutes, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Eric Balchunas. On Nasdaq, Canary Capital’s Hedera ETF (HBR) and Litecoin ETF (LTCC) posted $4 million and $400,000, respectively.
Balchunas expects BSOL to hit $52 million in volume by the end of the day, with HBR and LTCC expected to reach $8 million and $7 million.
The funds launched under the Securities Act of 1933, a regulatory structure commonly used for commodity-based ETFs. Unlike funds governed under the Investment Company Act of 1940, ‘33 Act products don’t require a board of directors or daily portfolio disclosure, making them a preferred format for single-asset crypto ETFs.
CoinDesk Indices provides the pricing benchmarks for both HBR and LTCC.
For comparison, the spot bitcoin ETFs brought in $628 million in flows on their first day across multiple issuers. Spot ether ETFs saw $106 million. Tuesday’s launch featured only one issuer per asset but Grayscale’s Solana Trust, which the firm filed to convert into an ETF, is set to begin trading on Wednesday.
Looking at potential demand for HBAR and LTC, Seyffart added: “HBAR’s market cap is about 8% the size of Solana while Litecoin is 7% of Solana. So probably going to be much smaller. Again, time will tell.”