Fidelity Investments has formally taken a step into the spot Solana ETF race, filing an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a fund that would directly hold SOL. The proposed product, named the Fidelity Solana Fund, would expand the asset manager’s digital asset ETF ambitions into one of the most closely watched altcoin markets.
The filing, submitted on June 13, 2025, outlines a structure designed to give investors exposure to Solana’s market performance without requiring them to buy and custody the token themselves. If approved, the fund would be organized as a Delaware statutory trust and seek to track the price of SOL using the Fidelity Solana Reference Rate, with performance adjusted for the fund’s expenses.
Direct SOL Exposure Through an Exchange-Traded Fund
According to the registration statement, the proposed ETF would hold SOL directly rather than gaining exposure through derivatives or synthetic instruments. That makes the filing part of the broader push by issuers to bring spot crypto investment products to regulated U.S. markets beyond bitcoin and ether.
Fidelity plans to list the shares on the Cboe BZX Exchange, although the ticker symbol has not yet been disclosed. Share creation and redemption would occur in large blocks, or baskets, primarily through authorized participants. Those baskets could be processed using either SOL or cash, giving the structure flexibility while still maintaining the fund’s direct relationship to the underlying asset.
The fund’s daily net asset value (NAV) would be calculated using the same reference-rate methodology that underpins the proposed benchmark for SOL pricing. This is intended to provide a standardized mechanism for valuing the trust’s holdings and determining the fund’s daily share price.
Staking Emerges as a Key Feature
One of the most notable elements in the filing is Fidelity’s plan to allow the ETF to pursue additional yield through staking. The trust would custody SOL and could stake a portion of its holdings through vetted service providers. That detail is likely to draw particular attention because staking has become a central topic in the debate over how crypto ETFs should be structured and what kinds of on-chain activities they should be permitted to undertake.
By including staking in the proposed framework, Fidelity is signaling that it sees Solana not only as a price-exposure asset but also as a network token capable of producing native blockchain-based rewards. The filing indicates that staking-related compensation would be handled separately from the standard sponsor fee, with the custodian receiving a distinct fee paid out of staking rewards.
That structure is important because it separates ordinary operational costs from the economics of staking, which may help investors better understand how fund expenses and reward generation would interact. At the same time, the filing does not disclose every financial detail. In particular, the annual sponsor fee, which would be tied to the SOL assets held by the fund, has not yet been publicly specified as a percentage.
Fee Structure and Regulatory Caveats
Fidelity’s filing states that the sponsor fee would cover most normal operating expenses of the trust. However, unusual or extraordinary expenses would not be included in that broad coverage. This type of disclosure is standard in ETF registration documents, but in the crypto space it carries additional significance because custody, blockchain operations, and staking-related administration can create cost considerations that differ from conventional equity or bond funds.
The registration materials also note that the trust is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. As a result, investors would not receive the same protections that apply to traditional mutual funds or ETFs governed by that statute. This is a familiar feature of many spot crypto ETF proposals, but it remains an important point for investors evaluating product structure and regulatory safeguards.
To establish the trust, a sponsor affiliate purchased a single Seed Share, a routine step used to launch the fund vehicle before broader issuance begins. Fidelity also identified the trust as an emerging growth company, allowing it to use scaled disclosure and reporting requirements during the initial stages, as permitted under U.S. securities rules.
SEC Approval Still Required
Despite the filing, the product cannot begin sales unless and until the SEC declares the registration effective and the broader approval process is completed. As with other crypto ETF proposals, the submission of an S-1 is only one part of the path to market. The regulator’s review will likely focus on custody arrangements, valuation methodology, market surveillance considerations, and the implications of staking within an exchange-traded product.
That review process matters because Solana ETFs remain an evolving category in the United States. While spot bitcoin ETFs have already entered the market and spot ether products have advanced regulatory expectations for large-cap digital assets, Solana represents the next stage in determining how far U.S. regulators are willing to extend the spot crypto ETF framework.
Growing Competition in the Solana ETF Race
Fidelity is far from alone in targeting a U.S.-listed Solana ETF. The filing arrives amid an increasingly crowded field of major asset managers and crypto-focused issuers seeking similar products. Other firms named in the report include VanEck, 21Shares, Bitwise, Grayscale, Canary Capital, and Franklin Templeton, all of which have submitted or pursued Solana ETF-related filings.
The growing list of applicants suggests that Solana is emerging as a major battleground for the next wave of institutional crypto products. For issuers, a spot Solana ETF represents both a commercial opportunity and a regulatory test case. For investors, it could eventually offer a more familiar market vehicle for gaining exposure to SOL through brokerage accounts, without the need to manage private keys or interact directly with crypto trading platforms.
Whether the SEC ultimately approves one or more of these proposals remains uncertain. But Fidelity’s entry is significant because it adds one of the world’s best-known asset managers to the list of firms pushing to broaden regulated crypto access. The inclusion of a staking component also raises the stakes in the competition, potentially setting a benchmark for how future altcoin ETFs may be designed if regulators permit more than simple passive holding.
For now, the Fidelity Solana Fund remains a proposal, not a live product. Still, the filing underscores a clear industry trend: major financial institutions are continuing to build infrastructure and product pipelines around digital assets, and Solana is increasingly central to that conversation.