Brazil expected to launch a Solana spot ETF soon

The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) has just approved the country’s first spot Solana ETF. Meanwhile, in the United States, regulators are still dragging their feet on similar products, leaving Brazil to take the lead. 

A new chapter for Brazil’s crypto market?

The newly approved ETF will be put together by QR Asset and managed by Vortx. But don’t get too excited just yet—B3, the company behind the Brazilian Stock Exchange, still needs to give the final go-ahead. 

Nobody knows exactly when this ETF will hit the market either. Brazil isn’t new to crypto ETFs. Since 2021, the country has had funds tied to Bitcoin and Ether, and now it’s adding Solana to the mix.

QR Asset’s Theodoro Fleury told us that this “reaffirms our commitment to offering quality and diversification to Brazilian investors.”

But the fund will use the CME CF Solana Dollar Reference Rate index, which was put together by CF Benchmarks with help from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

The U.S. is still playing catch-up

Now, while Brazil is moving full speed ahead, the United States is stuck in limbo. The SEC finally approved Bitcoin ETFs in January and Ether ETFs in June, but Solana? Don’t hold your breath.

The process to approve Solana ETFs in the U.S. is still in the early stages, and it’s a big question mark if they’ll get the green light anytime soon. Well perhaps if Gary Gensler gets kicked out of the SEC, but who knows?

After Ether ETFs got the nod, asset managers like VanEck jumped at the chance to file for a Solana ETF. Franklin Templeton is also looking to get in on the action. But JPMorgan is skeptical, and rightly so. 

We know that the SEC still sees Solana and other cryptos as securities, not commodities, and that’s a problem. Unless there’s a big change at the top of the SEC, best if we don’t expect to see Solana ETFs in the U.S. market anytime soon.

Political dynamics aren’t helping either. The current U.S. administration isn’t exactly crypto-friendly. VanEck’s CEO has said that a Republican win in the next election might be the only way these ETFs see the light of day. 

But Solana has its own set of challenges, like a high token issuance rate and some past issues with network stability. All these make it a tougher sell for institutional investors, and that could lead to more selling pressure on the asset itself.