Opinion: The U.S. SEC has clearly stated that Solana is a security, and the approval of ETFs may need to wait for a change in regulatory leadership

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, investment management firm VanEck has applied to launch a Solana ETF that tracks the price of Solana's native token. Many analysts have stated that after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently gave the green light for Ethereum-based ETFs, it was inevitable that the market would apply for a Solana ETF, but few doubt it will succeed at the first attempt.

Haseeb Qureshi, a partner at investment firm Dragonfly Capital, said, "This is impossible to accomplish; I suspect VanEck is building goodwill and laying the groundwork for a future launch." "But the SEC has made it clear that they consider SOL to be a security. This administration will not budge on this matter." James Seyffart, an ETF expert at Bloomberg Intelligence, also agreed, stating on X that the fund "only has a chance to launch sometime in 2025 if there is new management in the White House and the SEC."

The biggest legal hurdle facing the SOL ETF is that the SEC's enforcement division has explicitly stated that SOL is an unregistered security. Notably, this occurred a year ago when the agency sued Binance for having markets in Solana and 11 other cryptocurrencies. The SEC's opinion is based on the securities laws passed in the early 1930s and the Howey Test, which determines what constitutes a "security investment." Essentially, if a person invests funds in a common enterprise and expects to profit from the efforts of others, the SEC can declare that asset a security.