Bleeds Despite ‘Very Solid’ ETF Debut

The long-awaited debut of spot Solana ETFs in the U.S. drew solid demand, according to analysts — but you would not know it judging by the SOL SOL$165.27 price action.

The token, which notched a $205 high one day before last Tuesday’s ETF launch, has tumbled 20% to $165 in a week. It has well underperformed the already weak action of crypto majors bitcoin BTC$106,341.06 and ether ETH$3,581.32, which fell around 6% and 12%, respectively.

All that happened despite Solana-based exchange-traded products booking their second strongest weekly net inflow last week with $421 million, according to a CoinShares report.

Vetle Lunde, head of research at K33, described the ETFs’ first week as “very solid,” adding that that was all the more commendable compared to the heavy outflows of BTC and ETH counterparts.

“The launch of U.S. spot Solana ETFs has been a clear success, drawing strong investor demand despite broader crypto fund outflows,” Lunde said in a note.

Most of the inflow went to Bitwise’s Solana ETF (BSOL), which attracted roughly $199 million in fresh funds and launched with nearly $223 million in seed capital, according to Farside Investors data.

That $421 million total made BSOL the top-performing crypto ETF of the week, surpassing even BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which saw muted demand as bitcoin’s price continued to slide, CoinShares data showed.

The other spot Solana ETF, Grayscale’s Solana Trust (GSOL), by contrast, only pulled in $2.2 million. Still, it entered the market with $102 million in assets under management after converting from an existing, closed-end product.

GSOL charges a 0.35% management fee — much lower than the 1.5% fee on its flagship bitcoin or ether products, GBTC and ETHE. Even so, Bitwise undercut that with a 0.20% fee on BSOL.

“BSOL’s lower fees and first-mover advantage have fueled its rapid growth, while GSOL’s higher costs and later debut have tempered inflows,” K33’s Lunde noted.