Solana CME Futures Surge in July Following Rex-Osprey ETF Greenlight

Solana's CME futures just ripped higher—no surprise after the SEC finally stopped pretending crypto ETFs are 'too risky.'

Here's the breakdown:

The ETF Effect Strikes Again

Approval of the Rex-Osprey ETF in July sent institutional money scrambling for Solana exposure. CME futures volumes tell the story—traders are piling in before Wall Street fully wakes up to SOL's potential.

Futures Frenzy

Open interest and trading volume spiked as hedge funds played catch-up. Because nothing motivates finance guys like FOMO and a shiny new regulatory stamp.

Solana's proving it's more than just 'the fast chain'—it's becoming the institutional darling ETH was back in 2021. Whether that's progress or just the same speculative cycle with a different ticker? Well, that'd require actual due diligence.

CME open interest for SOL expanded by 370% for the past month, reaching as high as $800M. The increasing volumes follow the launch of the first Solana spot ETF with staking, as reported by Cryptopolitan in early July.

SOL futures trading volume expanded from $2.2B in June to $8.1B in July, with a constant expansion streak so far. Solana futures have been trading since March 17, in batches of 25 SOL and 500 SOL. 

The launch coincided with a crypto-wide slump, initially achieving minimal interest. SOL futures picked up on CME following the overall market recovery and the expectation of additional ETF approvals. 

SOL open interest peaked in July

SOL open interest peaked at over $5B on July 14, driven by the general market exuberance. Since then, SOL has seen multiple liquidations as the price corrected to a lower range. In the past 24 hours, $92M were liquidated on centralized markets and DEX. On-chain liquidations reached $77.45M, with just $43.39M on centralized exchanges.

At the end of the month, open interest took a step back to $4.6B, based on liquidations on centralized exchanges and DEX. The market price of SOL hinges on a mix of spot demand for fees or DeFi, and the sentiment of the derivative market. 

Recently, SOL swept the long open interest to under $170. The token may recover based on a short squeeze aiming to grab the liquidity deployed at $182.

Solana stablecoin transfers surge in July

The Solana ecosystem got a boost from new stablecoin minting in July. Circle injected 11% of the Solana USDC supply in the past month, with the total rebounding to $12.2B. 

Stablecoin transfer volume was also 53% higher in July, surging to $215B, of which $185 was from USDC transactions. DEX swap volumes also grew to over 900M daily on average, with USDC at one point contributing to $1.92B in daily volumes. 

An additional $690M of assets were bridged from other chains to Solana. The chain’s activity also meant fees surpassed all other L1 and L2 for the tenth month in a row. Solana became an even more active venue for meme tokens, with the surge of LetsBonk, which managed to displace the former leader, Pump.fun. 

July was also a highly successful month for Solana-based lending. Kamino emerged as the leading Solana app in terms of total value locked, surpassing even the Jito validator. Kamino was key in tapping the value of memes while releasing additional USDC liquidity. Currently, Solana is positioned as a chain tapping both crypto natives and institutions, through its upcoming ETF. 

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