The Solana community is in celebratory mode this week after Bitwise launched the first Solana spot ETF in the U.S. This development comes after months of anticipation, with the trend of ETFs expected to expand into more altcoins.
The Bitwise Solana spot ETF made its debut on Tuesday, October 28th. Preliminary data revealed that the Solana ETF pulled in $69.5 million in the first 24 hours after it started trading.
The new Solana spot ETF had $289 million in total net assets. The difference between the total net assets and spot inflows was courtesy of the initial seed amount that Bitwise injected into the ETF. Despite being an exciting development, it did not have a significant impact, especially on price. A major reason for this was the fact that it was only one ETF. For comparison, Ethereum and Bitcoin both had multiple ETFs approved at the same time. However, this latest Solana ETF approval may have just been the start.
More Solana Spot ETF Approvals and Developments Expected
Solana’s official handle on the X social platform confirmed that the Grayscale Solana Trust ETF has secured the SEC’s approval. This means the ETF is ready for legislation and listing.
Grayscale is one of the biggest institutional participants in the crypto ETF segment. Its new SOL ETF signaled robust interest, just as was the case with the inflows into the Bitwise Solana spot ETF on its first day. Additional SOL ETF approvals are expected down the road, and they may boost the level of institutional liquidity injection into the cryptocurrency.
Solana also celebrated another major win. Western Union, a giant in the cross-border remittance industry, reportedly plans to launch its own stablecoin on the Solana network in 2026. Western Union previously conducted tests on the XRP ledger. However, initial reports revealed that the financial services provider opted for Solana due to a combination of factors, including speed, reliability, and cost.
SOL Price Struggles to Stay Above $200
SOL holders have been hoping for a major catalyst to reignite heavy bullish activity, and Solana ETF approvals were quite promising. However, its price action barely demonstrated any excitement around the ETF news. SOL price action pushed as high as $205 on Monday, but has since cooled down significantly. The cryptocurrency exchanged hands at $196 at press time and concluded Tuesday in the red by over 2%.
SOL’s RSI confirmed bullish weakness that aligned with the recently observed weak demand from whales across top cryptocurrencies. The RSI indicator struggled to push above its 50% level despite achieving some recovery since the October 10th flash crash. Whale activity around SOL remained relatively low, but it did demonstrate some excitement for price since Tuesday.
For example, net spot flows across Binance, OKX, and Coinbase were positive and amounted to $23 million. Derivatives positions were also positive at $706 million on Binance and OKX futures. The large order book data confirmed that liquidity flows from the whale cohort remained limited despite the positive flows. Nevertheless, open interest has been gradually recovering after a massive flush in the last six weeks. For reference, SOL open interest peaked above $17 billion and bottomed out at $8.5 billion. It has since climbed back above $10 billion.