SSK Smashes Records as First US Solana Staking ETF—$33M Trading Frenzy on Day One

Wall Street finally catches up to crypto—with a Solana-shaped ETF.

The Proof-of-Stake Play

The SSK ETF just bulldozed its way onto the scene, becoming the first US-listed fund to offer pure Solana staking exposure. No more messy validators or lock-up periods—just tradable yield wrapped in Wall Street's favorite packaging.

Numbers Don't Lie

$33 million in volume on debut tells you everything. Traders piled in like it was a free NFT drop—except this time, the SEC actually approved it (we checked twice).

The Cynic's Corner

Funny how traditional finance suddenly loves blockchain when they can slap a ticker on it and charge 2% management fees. Welcome to decentralization, Wall Street-style.

SSK Outperforms Solana, XRP Futures Volume

Trading under the ticker SSK on the Cboe BZX Exchange, the REX-Osprey Solana Staking ETF is the first of its kind in the United States, which provides direct exposure to spot Solana while allowing investors to capture staking yields.

The product’s debut comes amid rising interest in crypto-related ETFs but was marked by a performance gap compared to the blockbuster first-day volumes seen with spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs earlier this year.

In the latest tweet, Balchunas also noted that SSK’s launch surpassed the volumes of Solana and XRP futures ETFs and even outpaced the typical ETF launch. Despite this, the fund remained significantly below the $4.6 billion first-day trading activity recorded by spot bitcoin ETFs in January 2024.

The ETF’s structure allowed it to MOVE forward without the standard 19b-4 filing process, using the Investment Company Act of 1940.

As Balchunas had previously explained, it achieved this by allocating at least 40% of its assets to other exchange-traded products, primarily outside the US. This approach followed prior regulatory pushback from the SEC, which initially raised concerns about the product’s qualification under securities laws.

As such, Anchorage Digital is tasked with serving as the ETF’s staking and custodian partner.

SSK Off To A “Healthy Start”

Bloomberg’s James Seyffart described the opening as a “healthy start,” and added that $8 million worth of shares traded hands within the first 20 minutes.

The trading debut may help gauge institutional appetite for a potential spot Solana ETF in the country, which analysts believe could receive approval later this year. Balchunas and Seyffart have recently assessed a 95% probability for such approvals before year-end, which reflects Optimism in the broader market despite the current subdued volumes in spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs.