Solana and XRP are among a number of cryptocurrencies expected to be approved as exchange-traded funds in 2025, according to two Bloomberg analysts.
Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart expect “a wave of cryptocurrency ETFs” in the new year as a shift in Securities and Exchange Commission leadership under President-elect Donald Trump paves the way for the agency’s approval of additional spot crypto ETFs, like those issued earlier this year for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Spot crypto ETFs are a type of easily-traded financial asset that tracks the price of an underlying cryptocurrency, without investors having to own the currency directly.
“Everybody's odds just went up,” Balchunas told Fortune. “XRP and Solana, in particular, are probably the most sought after as the next two to launch from issuers, and their odds went from a snowball’s chance in hell to pretty decent when Trump won.”
However, these expected ETFs won’t be approved all at once, Balchunas warned, saying that Solana and XRP ETFs will likely be held up longer than others while legal hurdles related to the coins are resolved. The SEC has labeled the two currencies as unregistered securities—rather than commodities—in multiple lawsuits, barring their approval as commodity-based ETFs under securities laws.
“The way the filings are, the SEC would have to drop that label and just be okay with them being commodities,” Balchunas said, adding that such a move is a strong possibility since Trump selected crypto advocate Paul Atkins to chair the SEC.
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum are regulated as commodities. As such, the analysts say ETFs that simultaneously track Bitcoin and Ethereum are most likely to be the next approved, followed by Litecoin, a cryptocurrency that aims to be a faster and cheaper version of Bitcoin.
Grayscale, Bitwise, and VanEck are among the asset managers that have already filed to introduce new spot crypto ETFs. Most recently, on Dec. 2, ETF issuer Wisdom Tree applied for an ETF focused on XRP.
“Spaghetti thrown at the wall”
In January, several investment firms including BlackRock debuted their version of a spot Bitcoin ETF on major stock exchanges. Fueled by huge demand, these ETFs quickly outpaced the performance of more traditional ETFs and pushed the price of Bitcoin in March to what was then an all-time high. A few months later, the SEC approved Ethereum ETFs, which have also outperformed other traditional ETFs but have significantly underperformed Bitcoin.
Despite their success, Balchunas says he doesn’t expect other crypto ETFs to be particularly attractive to investors because their underlying altcoins aren’t as well known as Bitcoin.
This incoming wave of crypto ETFs will be like “spaghetti thrown at the wall,” he said, in the hope that one of these cryptocurrencies takes off.
“Our view is that Bitcoin will utterly dominate this category,” Balchunas said. “I wouldn't be surprised if Bitcoin has three quarters of all the assets, even in five years from now.”
