13 more questions to the SEC: Which Cryptocurrency ETFs could be Approved in 2025?
With the arrival of a new administration in the United States, many investors and companies expect more cryptocurrency funds to be approved.
The launch of the first Bitcoin ETFs in the US gave the cryptocurrency market a strong influx of capital in early 2024 and became one of the catalysts for Bitcoin's growth.
With the arrival of a new administration in the US, many investors and companies expect more cryptocurrency funds to be approved.
Cryptocurrency ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) are exchange-traded funds backed by physical cryptocurrencies. This means that the companies issuing these funds can only issue shares if they have sufficient digital assets on their balance sheets. These investment products will allow investors to invest in cryptocurrencies without owning them directly.
Election 2024
Because of regulatory restrictions for US companies, many organisations cannot legally invest in cryptocurrencies. For this reason, ETFs are considered by investors to be one of the few options available to organisations wishing to invest in crypto assets.
Following Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election in early November, companies issuing exchange-traded funds began submitting applications for ETFs on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum.
It is assumed that the Trump administration will attempt to revive and rethink cryptocurrency regulation policy. In particular, this concerns the attitude of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) towards the crypto market, which under President Joe Biden has tightened its control over this sector.
For example, speaking at the 'Bitcoin 2024' cryptocurrency conference in Nashville at the end of July, Trump announced his intention to create a 'strategic reserve of Bitcoin', emphasising the importance of cryptocurrencies for the country's economic competitiveness.
So, by early December, just one month after Trump's election, 13 applications to launch ETFs based on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum had been submitted to the SEC, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffarth. The applications include funds based on Solana, XRP, Litecoin, HBAR and mixed ETFs.
James Seyffarth has become a leading source of information on spot ETFs on Bitcoin, and has accurately predicted their approval and launch in January. He and his fellow market analyst Eric Balchunas were the first to point out the change in the SEC's rhetoric about Ethereum-based ETFs, which in late May sent the price of ETH up 20% in a single day.
The deadline for approval decisions on all these requests is set, for the most part, at the end of 2025. Nine of the 13 requests are based on the Solana cryptocurrency (five requests) and XRP (four requests). Despite the high number of requests, Seyffarth said it was unlikely that Solana-based funds would be approved by mid-July. There was no comment on other cryptocurrencies.
One of the latest requests came from Grayscale, which intends to convert its Solana-based private fund (Grayscale Solana Trust) in an ETF, similar to what has been done with private funds based on Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitwise, VanEck, Canary and 21Shares have also submitted applications for Solana-based funds.
VanEck was the first to apply for a Solana-based ETF back in June. However, at the time, market participants were sceptical about the initiative. Now, with the new Trump administration, participants are re-evaluating their attitude towards these products.
In early December, WisdomTree submitted a request to launch a fund based on Ripple's XRP token. WisdomTree already owns a Bitcoin-based spot ETF, which manages over $365 million in assets. Canary, Bitwise and 21Shares had also previously applied for similar XRP-based funds. The latter two companies already own their own Bitcoin-based ETFs.
Big-scale
The number of bitcoins managed by BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) has reached 500,380 coins (over $48 billion at today's rate). This milestone was reached in less than a year after the fund's launch and in just 233 trading days.
Back in March, when BlackRock's bitcoin fund first surpassed 250,000 bitcoins, the firm's CEO, Larry Fink, called the iShares Bitcoin Trust the fastest-growing fund in the history of the ETF market. In early November, BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF surpassed its gold ETF, the iShares Gold ETF, in terms of volume of assets under management.
A group of 12 US spot ETFs, including those of BlackRock and Fidelity, already manage more than 1.1 million bitcoins, or about 5.5 per cent of existing coins. This figure is comparable to the estimated amount of bitcoins in the wallets of Bitcoin's anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who according to various estimates may own between 600,000 and 1.5 million bitcoins.
The launch of the first Bitcoin ETFs in the US gave the cryptocurrency market a strong influx of capital in early 2024 and became one of the catalysts for Bitcoin's growth.
With the arrival of a new administration in the US, many investors and companies expect more cryptocurrency funds to be approved.
Cryptocurrency ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) are exchange-traded funds backed by physical cryptocurrencies. This means that the companies issuing these funds can only issue shares if they have sufficient digital assets on their balance sheets. These investment products will allow investors to invest in cryptocurrencies without owning them directly.
Because of regulatory restrictions for US companies, many organisations cannot legally invest in cryptocurrencies. For this reason, ETFs are considered by investors to be one of the few options available to organisations wishing to invest in crypto assets.
Following Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election in early November, companies issuing exchange-traded funds began submitting applications for ETFs on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum.
It is assumed that the Trump administration will attempt to revive and rethink cryptocurrency regulation policy. In particular, this concerns the attitude of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) towards the crypto market, which under President Joe Biden has tightened its control over this sector.
For example, speaking at the 'Bitcoin 2024' cryptocurrency conference in Nashville at the end of July, Trump announced his intention to create a 'strategic reserve of Bitcoin', emphasising the importance of cryptocurrencies for the country's economic competitiveness.
So, by early December, just one month after Trump's election, 13 applications to launch ETFs based on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum had been submitted to the SEC, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffarth. The applications include funds based on Solana, XRP, Litecoin, HBAR and mixed ETFs.
James Seyffarth has become a leading source of information on spot ETFs on Bitcoin, and has accurately predicted their approval and launch in January. He and his fellow market analyst Eric Balchunas were the first to point out the change in the SEC's rhetoric about Ethereum-based ETFs, which in late May sent the price of ETH up 20% in a single day.
The deadline for approval decisions on all these requests is set, for the most part, at the end of 2025. Nine of the 13 requests are based on the Solana cryptocurrency (five requests) and XRP (four requests). Despite the high number of requests, Seyffarth said it was unlikely that Solana-based funds would be approved by mid-July. There was no comment on other cryptocurrencies.
One of the latest requests came from Grayscale, which intends to convert its Solana-based private fund (Grayscale Solana Trust) in an ETF, similar to what has been done with private funds based on Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitwise, VanEck, Canary and 21Shares have also submitted applications for Solana-based funds.
VanEck was the first to apply for a Solana-based ETF back in June. However, at the time, market participants were sceptical about the initiative. Now, with the new Trump administration, participants are re-evaluating their attitude towards these products.
In early December, WisdomTree submitted a request to launch a fund based on Ripple's XRP token. WisdomTree already owns a Bitcoin-based spot ETF, which manages over $365 million in assets. Canary, Bitwise and 21Shares had also previously applied for similar XRP-based funds. The latter two companies already own their own Bitcoin-based ETFs.
Big-scale
The number of bitcoins managed by BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) has reached 500,380 coins (over $48 billion at today's rate). This milestone was reached in less than a year after the fund's launch and in just 233 trading days.
Back in March, when BlackRock's bitcoin fund first surpassed 250,000 bitcoins, the firm's CEO, Larry Fink, called the iShares Bitcoin Trust the fastest-growing fund in the history of the ETF market. In early November, BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF surpassed its gold ETF, the iShares Gold ETF, in terms of volume of assets under management.
A group of 12 US spot ETFs, including those of BlackRock and Fidelity, already manage more than 1.1 million bitcoins, or about 5.5 per cent of existing coins. This figure is comparable to the estimated amount of bitcoins in the wallets of Bitcoin's anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who according to various estimates may own between 600,000 and 1.5 million bitcoins.
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