Balchunas: Canadian Solana ETFs to include staking, may face slow start

Solana’s first spot exchange-traded funds in North America are set to go live this week in Canada.

According to Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, Canada is ready to welcome its first spot Solana (SOL) spot ETFs.

The upcoming ETFs will offer investors access to funds that hold long-term positions in SOL, tracking the physical Solana tokens.

The launch marks a significant milestone, especially as the broader investor community awaits potential approval of spot ETFs for Solana and other altcoins in the United States.

Set to go live on April 16, 2025, the Canadian-listed Solana ETFs will include staking features, a factor analysts believe could drive adoption by allowing investors to earn yield on their holdings.

However, Balchunas cautioned that the launch may struggle to attract immediate traction, referencing the underwhelming performance of the Solana futures ETFs that recently debuted in the U.S. These funds have so far failed to gather substantial assets under management.

“The 2x XRP already has more aum than both the Solana ETFs and it came out after,” he wrote on X. “Wouldn’t read a ton into it, but it’s our first look at the alt coin race.”

Canada saw the first spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) ETFs, well before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gave the greenlight for the U.S. markets BTC and ETH ETFs.

SOL funds going live in the country could also provide a similar pattern, with the SEC currently having several altcoin ETF applications before it .

Apart from Solana, other highly anticipated crypto ETFs include XRP, Litecoin and Cardano.