SEC Greenlights Historic Ethereum and Solana Staking ETFs – Here’s What Comes Next
Wall Street's about to get a crash course in crypto yield farming. After months of regulatory limbo, the first-ever staking ETFs for Ethereum and Solana are cleared for launch—just don't call it passive income when the SEC's watching.
The backroom shuffle that made it happen
Insiders whisper the approval came down to last-minute tweaks addressing the SEC's obsession with 'investment contract' classifications. Translation: lawyers earned their Bitcoin-weight fees rewriting prospectuses to avoid triggering Howey Test alarms.
Why this changes everything (and nothing)
Traditional finance finally gets its hands on crypto's holy grail—staking yields—without the hassle of self-custody. Meanwhile, crypto natives shrug: 'Welcome to 2021, boomers.' The real innovation? Packaging DeFi's wild west into neat little expense-ratio-wrapped parcels.
Cynic's corner: Nothing says 'mature asset class' like letting BlackRock clients chase the same APYs as degenerate Twitter threads—with 2% management fees attached.
Investment managers REX Financial and Osprey Funds may soon introduce the first staked ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) ETFs for American investors, following a new development in their regulatory process.
All Systems Go For Imminent Staking ETF Launch
As pointed out by Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the SEC told the funds’ issuers in a June 27 statement that it had “no further comments” on the filings.
“Rex also filed an updated prospectus, which totally filled in. Add it all up, and it appears as though all systems go for imminent launch,” Balchunas wrote in an X post on Friday.
Rex Shares and Osprey Funds submitted paperwork with the SEC in May to launch staked SOL and ETH ETFs, proposing ETF structures that would allow the funds to hold and stake the two crypto assets and distribute stake rewards to shareholders.
However, their application was flagged by the SEC shortly afterward, with the agency asserting that its staff had unresolved questions around whether the funds WOULD qualify for issuance under existing rules due to their unique C-corporation business structure. But according to the Friday filing, it seems those questions have been fully resolved.
“Here’s the SEC saying it has no further comments, so they are good to launch it looks like. Wow,” said Balchunas.
REX and Osprey have also indicated readiness to roll out these products. A newly released “Coming Soon” campaign prominently features the forthcoming staked ETH and SOL ETFs on their website. They will be listed by Cboe BZX and will trade under the tickers ESK for the ETH staking ETF and SSK for the SOL staking ETF.
Coming Soon: The First-Ever Staked Crypto ETF in the U.S.!
Introducing the REX-Osprey
SOL + Staking ETF, designed to track the performance of solana while generating yield through on-chain staking.
SOL exposureStaking rewards
A new era of yield-generating crypto… pic.twitter.com/I8yIEqiI5R
SEC ‘Comfortable’ With Creative ETF Structure
ETF Store president Nate Geraci observed in a post on X that it looks like the Securities and Exchange Commission is open to REX Shares’ clever C-corp business structure used in the fund, which the SEC previously contended conflicts with the 6C-11 rule (also known as “the ETF rule”).
“Looks like they’re comfortable pushing forward w/ their creative ‘40 Act structure,” Geraci said. “Here we go,” he postulated.
With this unique structure, staking distributions to holders will be taxed within the fund before being distributed to holders as dividends.
Echoing Geraci’s view, Bloomberg’s James Seyffart previously noted that the way Rex Shares and Osprey Funds structured their SOL staking ETF proposal was “very rare in the ETF world” as it bypasses the typical 19b-4 filing process that most crypto ETF issuers have used for staking proposals.
Around seven asset managers are currently vying to launch a spot Solana ETF in the US, and the Bloomberg analysts peg the odds of the SOL funds securing the regulatory nod by the end of 2025 at 95% amid positive engagement with the SEC.
