Coin Market

Solana futures ETF to grow institutional adoption, despite limited inflows

Published

2 weeks ago

March 20, 2025

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, as the “next logical step” for crypto-based trading products, according to industry watchers.

Volatility Shares is launching 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 significant new institutional adoption for the SOL token, according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.

Volatility Shares Solana ETF SEC filing. Source: SEC

The analyst told Cointelegraph:

“The launch of the first Solana ETFs in the US could significantly boost Solana’s market position by increasing demand and liquidity for SOL, potentially narrowing the gap with Ethereum’s market cap.”

The Solana ETF will grow institutional adoption by “offering a regulated investment vehicle, attracting billions in capital and reinforcing Solana’s competitiveness against Ethereum,” said Lee, adding that “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, as predicted by Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas.

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

While the futures ETF may not bring significant 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:

“Solana spot ETF is yet to be approved but given the increased awareness around Solana and the Futures ETFs this would be a logical next step.”

“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,” he added.

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. Source: JP Morgan

“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.

Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge

Coin Market

Trump sons back new Bitcoin mining venture with Hut 8

Published

39 minutes ago

March 31, 2025

Several members of US President Donald Trump’s family are backing a new venture to launch what aims to become the world’s largest Bitcoin mining firm.

Hut 8, a digital asset mining and infrastructure company, announced on March 31 that it is acquiring a majority stake in American Bitcoin, formerly known as American Data Center. The firm was founded by a group of investors, including Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

As part of the deal, American Bitcoin will take ownership of Hut 8’s Bitcoin (BTC) mining hardware. Donald Trump Jr. said that the entrepreneurs behind American Data Centers have backed their conviction in Bitcoin personally and through their businesses.

The new venture “aims to become the world’s largest, most efficient pure-play Bitcoin miner while building a robust strategic Bitcoin reserve,” the announcement said. Mining operations will remain under Hut 8’s compute segment but will operate through the American Bitcoin brand. Donald Trump Jr. added:

“Mining it on favorable economics opens an even bigger opportunity. We’re excited to bring investors into that equation through a platform engineered to execute on this thesis and deliver real, tangible participation in Bitcoin’s growth.”

Trump family deepens involvement in crypto

President Trump continues to promote pro-crypto policy as his family and affiliated companies expand their presence in the digital asset space.

On March 28, he pardoned three co-founders of crypto exchange BitMEX who previously pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges, according to a CNBC report.

On March 21, the US Treasury dropped the decentralized crypto mixer Tornado Cash from its sanction lists, invalidating related legal proceedings. Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance recently stated that memecoins do not qualify as securities under US law. Progress is underway on the creation of a national Bitcoin strategic reserve.

On the commercial front, Trump launched his Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin. His Trump Technology Group also announced a partnership with Crypto.com, which is expected to support a new suite of crypto exchange-traded funds.

The Trump family has been involved in launching a decentralized finance protocol on Aave called World Liberty Financial (WLFI), as well as introducing a new stablecoin named USD1.

Strategic shift for Hut 8

Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot recognized the launch of American Bitcoin as a “pivotal evolution” in the firm‘s strategy. He said that separating the mining business from the rest of the corporate activities would allow it to raise its own capital and “align each segment of the business with its respective cost of capital.” He added:

“It evolves Hut 8 toward more predictable, financeable, lower-cost-of-capital segments and establishes American Bitcoin as a pure-play mining platform built for exahash growth, Bitcoin production, and operating leverage.”

The report follows Hut 8 surpassing $1 billion worth of Bitcoin holdings after acquiring 990 BTC for $100 million at the end of 2024. At the time, the company’s total Bitcoin mining stood at 10,096 BTC acquired at an average price of $24,484 per Bitcoin.

Bitcoin mining revenue approached $3.6 billion in Q1 2025 as industry income stabilized after the last halving. Recent data also shows that miners’ daily revenue per unit of hash power remained constant at around $48 per petahash per second, despite the mining difficulty increasing.

Magazine: Bitcoin ATH sooner than expected? XRP may drop 40%, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 23 – 29

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Coin Market

Crypto funds see $226M of inflows, but asset values slump — CoinShares

Published

39 minutes ago

March 31, 2025

Cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) continued to see modest inflows last week, extending a reversal from a record-breaking streak of outflows.

Global crypto ETPs posted $226 million in inflows in the last trading week, adding to the prior week’s $644 million inflows, CoinShares reported on March 31.

Despite the two-week positive trend after a five-week outflow streak, total assets under management (AUM) continued to decline, dropping below $134 million by March 28.

Weekly crypto ETP flows since late 2024. Source: CoinShares

Last week’s inflows suggest positive but cautious investor behavior amid core Personal Consumption Expenditures in the US coming in above expectations, CoinShares’ head of research James Butterfill said.

Bitcoin leads weekly inflows

Bitcoin (BTC) investment products attracted the majority of inflows, totaling $195 million for the week, while short-BTC investment products saw outflows for the fourth consecutive week, totaling $2.5 million.

Altcoins, in aggregate, saw a first week of inflows totaling $33 million, following four consecutive weeks of outflows totaling $1.7 billion.

Flows by asset (in millions of US dollars). Source: CoinShares

Among individual altcoins, Ether (ETH) saw $14.5 million in inflows. Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP) and Sui (SUI) followed with $7.8 million, $4.8 million and $4 million, respectively.

AUM drops to lowest level in 2025 amid price slump

Despite recent inflows, crypto ETPs have failed to trigger a reversal in terms of total AUM.

Since March 10, the total crypto ETP AUM dropped 5.7% from 142 billion, amounting to 133.9 billion as of March 28, the lowest level in 2025.

According to CoinShares’ Butterfill, the AUM decline could be attributed to a slump in cryptocurrency prices.

“Recent price falls have pushed Bitcoin global ETPs’ total assets under management to their lowest level since just after the US election at $114 billion,” Butterfill wrote.

Bitcoin price chart since Jan. 1, 2025. Source: CoinGecko

Since Jan. 1, 2025, the BTC price has dropped 13.6%, while the total market capitalization has tumbled nearly 20%, according to data from CoinGecko.

Magazine: Bitcoin ATH sooner than expected? XRP may drop 40%, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 23 – 29

Coin Market

Stablecoins, tokenized assets gain as Trump tariffs loom

Published

39 minutes ago

March 31, 2025

Cryptocurrency investors are increasingly moving capital into stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) in a bid to avoid volatility ahead of US President Donald Trump’s widely anticipated tariff announcement on April 2.

Increasingly more capital is flowing into stablecoins and the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector, which refers to financial products and tangible assets such as real estate and fine art minted on the blockchain.

“Stablecoins and RWAs continue to see steady inflows of capital as safe havens in the current uncertain market,” crypto intelligence platform IntoTheBlock wrote in a March 31 X post.

“However, because these assets reside on-chain, even slight shifts in sentiment can trigger significant price movements, driven by the lower barriers to reallocating capital in real time,” the firm noted.

Stablecoins, total market cap. Source: IntoTheBlock

The flight to safety is mainly attributed to geopolitical tensions and global trade concerns, according to Juan Pellicer, senior research analyst at IntoTheBlock:

“Many investors were expecting economic tailwinds following Trump’s inauguration as president, but increased geopolitical tensions, tariffs and general political uncertainty are making investors more cautious.”

“This is not unreasonable, as even though global growth forecasts remain positive, growth expectations have decreased globally in recent months,” he added.

The prospect of a global trade war has heightened inflation-related concerns, causing a significant decline in both cryptocurrency and traditional equity markets.

S&P 500, BTC/USD, 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen 19% and the S&P 500 (SPX) index has fallen over 7% in the two months since Trump first announced import tariffs on Chinese goods on Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration as president.

The April 2 announcement is expected to detail reciprocal trade tariffs targeting top US trading partners. The measures aim to reduce the country’s estimated $1.2 trillion goods trade deficit and boost domestic manufacturing.

Investor sentiment pressured by April 2 Trump tariff announcement

Global tariff fears and uncertainty around the upcoming announcement continue to pressure investor sentiment in global markets.

“Risk appetite remains muted amid tariff threats from President Trump and ongoing macro uncertainty,” Iliya Kalchev, dispatch analyst at digital asset investment platform Nexo, told Cointelegraph.

Meanwhile, RWAs reached a new cumulative all-time high of over $17 billion on Feb. 3, and are currently less than 0.5% away from surpassing the $20 billion milestone, according to data from RWA.xyz.

RWA global market dashboard. Source: RWA.xyz

Some industry watchers believe that Bitcoin’s lack of upside momentum may drive RWAs to an over $50 billion all-time high before the end of 2025, as their increased liquidity will help RWAs attract a significant share of the $450 trillion global asset market.

Magazine: SCB tips $500K BTC, SEC delays Ether ETF options, and more: Hodler’s Digest, Feb. 23 – March 1