Blockchain infrastructure provider Figment has been selected as the staking provider for 3iQ’s newly approved Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF), underscoring Canada’s continued efforts toward adoption of digital asset financial products.

Figment will enable institutional staking for the 3iQ Solana (SOL) Staking ETF, which launches on the Toronto Stock Exchange on April 16 under the ticker SOLQ, the companies said in a statement. In addition to 3iQ, Figment provides staking infrastructure solutions to more than 700 clients. 

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), a provincial regulator, green-lighted 3iQ’s SOL fund on April 14. The approval was also extended to other fund managers seeking to offer SOL ETFs, including Purpose, Evolve and CI.

As Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas reported at the time, the funds are permitted to stake a portion of their SOL holdings through TD Bank, Canada’s second-largest financial institution by assets. 

Source: Eric Balchunas

3iQ estimates that its SOL fund will provide yields of between 6% and 8%, according to its website. 

Related: Solana, XRP ETFs may attract billions in new investment — JPMorgan

3iQ leads Canadian crypto ETFs as US regulators drag their feet

As US regulators continue to consider various crypto-related fund offerings, Canada has been leading the curve in adoption going back to 2021. That was the year that 3iQ debuted its spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF, which crossed $1 billion in net assets almost immediately. 

It would take nearly three more years before spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved in the United States. Like their Canadian counterparts, the US ETFs saw overwhelming success in their first year, generating more than $38 billion in net inflows.

In October 2023, 3iQ launched an ETF tied to Ether (ETH), giving investors direct access to the smart contract platform. Unlike the Ether ETFs that US regulators approved the following year, 3iQ’s fund offers staking rewards. 

As Cointelegraph recently reported, US regulators may be on the cusp of approving staking rewards after they authorized exchanges to list options contracts tied to ETH.

Source: James Seyffart

Related: SEC delays staking decision for Grayscale ETH ETFs

Spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds saw a total of $872 million in net outflows between April 3 and April 10, causing traders to wonder if overall interest in Bitcoin is fading. The strong selling pressure began on April 3, as global trade tensions increased and fears of an economic recession grew. This trend is especially concerning after two days of spot Bitcoin ETF net flows below $2 million on April 11 and April 14.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs aggregate net flows, USD. Source: CoinGlass

Bitcoin’s price has remained relatively stable near $83,000 for the past five weeks, which further suggests weak interest from both buyers and sellers. On one hand, this lack of volatility could show that Bitcoin is becoming a more mature asset class. For example, several S&P 500 companies have dropped 40% or more from their all-time highs, while Bitcoin’s largest drawdown in 2025 was a healthier 32%.

However, Bitcoin’s performance has disappointed those who believed in the “digital gold” narrative. Gold has gained 23% so far in 2025, reaching an all-time high of $3,245 on April 11. Even though Bitcoin outperformed the S&P 500 by 4% over the past 30 days, some investors worry that its appeal is fading, as it is currently uncorrelated with other assets and not acting as a reliable store of value.

Average Bitcoin ETF volume surpasses $2 billion per day

When looking at the spot Bitcoin ETF market—especially compared to gold—Bitcoin has some advantages. On April 14, spot Bitcoin ETFs had a combined trading volume of $2.24 billion, which is 18% below the 30-day average of $2.75 billion. So, it would not be accurate to say that investor interest in these products has disappeared.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs daily volumes, USD. Source: CoinGlass

While Bitcoin ETF volumes are lower than the $54 billion per day traded by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), they are not far behind gold ETFs at $5.3 billion and are ahead of US Treasurys ETFs at $2.1 billion. This is impressive, considering that spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US only launched in January 2024, while gold ETFs have been trading for over 20 years and have $137 billion in assets under management.

Even when including the Grayscale GBTC Trust, which surpassed 200,000 shares traded per day in 2017 before it was converted to an ETF, Bitcoin investment products are still less than eight years old. Currently, spot Bitcoin ETFs hold about $94.6 billion in assets under management, which is more than the market capitalization of well-known companies such as British American Tobacco, UBS, ICE, BNP Paribas, Cigna, Sumitomo Mitsui and several others.

Related: Bitcoin shows growing strength during market downturn — Wintermute

Ranking of tradable assets by market capitalization, USD: Source: 8marketcap

To see how spot Bitcoin ETFs have become established in the industry, one can look at the top holders of these products. These include well-known names like Brevan Howard, D.E. Shaw, Apollo Management, Mubadala Investment, and the State of Wisconsin Investment. From pension funds to some of the world’s largest independent asset managers, Bitcoin ETFs provide an alternative to traditional assets, regardless of short-term price movements.

As the asset class grows and more products like futures and options are listed, Bitcoin may eventually be included in global indexes, whether in the commodities or currencies category. This could lead passive funds to invest, increasing both price potential and trading volume. Therefore, the current lack of strong net inflows or outflows is not unusual and should not be seen as a sign of weakness.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

CleanSpark will start selling a portion of the Bitcoin earned from its mining operations each month in a bid to become financially self-sufficient, the US Bitcoin miner said on April 15. 

In addition, CleanSpark secured a $200 million credit facility backed by Bitcoin (BTC) through an agreement with Coinbase Prime, the institutional brokerage division of the crypto exchange, according to a statement.

Together, the Bitcoin sales and credit line mean CleanSpark has “achieved escape velocity — the ability to self-fund operations, augment our bitcoin treasury, and contribute to expansion capital through operational cash flow,” Zach Bradford, CEO of CleanSpark, said. 

CleanSpark has opened an institutional Bitcoin trading desk to facilitate the cryptocurrency sales, it added. 

Crypto mining stocks are down sharply in 2025. Source: Morningstar

Related: Bitdeer turns to self-mining Bitcoin, US operations amid tariff tumult — Report

Navigating market volatility

The Bitcoin miner’s emphasis on self-funding comes as mining stocks reel from across-the-board selloffs in the first quarter of 2025. 

Shares of CoinShares Crypto Miners ETF (WGMI) — a publicly traded fund tracking a diverse basket of Bitcoin mining stocks — are down more than 40% since the start of the year, according to data from Morningstar. 

“[W]e believe this is the right time to evolve from a nearly 100% hold strategy adopted in mid-2023 and move back using a portion of our monthly production to support operations,” Bradford said. 

Cheaper stock prices effectively increase Bitcoin miners’ cost of capital and can potentially cause creditors to demand faster loan repayments. 

Analysts at JP Morgan attributed the downturn to eroding cryptocurrency prices, which added pressure to business models already strained by the Bitcoin network’s April 2024 halving. 

Halvings occur roughly every four years when the Bitcoin network automatically cuts mining rewards in half. 

Price per Bitcoin versus network hashrate. Source: JPMorgan

In April, pressure on mining stocks worsened when US President Donald Trump announced plans for sweeping tariffs on US imports.

US Bitcoin miners are especially vulnerable to trade wars because they rely on specialized mining hardware, often sourced from foreign manufacturers.  

Bradford said he expects CleanSpark’s financial self-sufficiency to differentiate it from peers “who continue to rely on equity dilution to fund operating costs or increased leverage to grow their Bitcoin reserves.”

Other miners are taking similarly aggressive measures to adapt to the changing market.

Bitdeer, a Singapore-based crypto miner, has reportedly touted plans to start manufacturing mining hardware in the United States to mitigate the impact of Trump’s planned import tariffs.

Magazine: Illegal arcade disguised as … a fake Bitcoin mine? Soldier scams in China: Asia Express