Solana Futures Launch on CME Signals Imminent US ETF Approval

The upcoming launch of Solana (SOL) futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is seen as a significant indicator that the first US SOL exchange-traded fund (ETF) listings are imminent. Chris Chung, founder of Solana-based swap platform Titan, highlighted that the introduction of SOL futures contracts on March 17 will be among the first regulated Solana futures to enter the US market, following Coinbase’s launch in February.

Chung believes that this listing "paves the way for the eventual approval of SOL ETFs." He anticipates that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could approve asset managers VanEck and Canary Capital’s proposed spot Solana ETFs as early as May. The existence of regulated Solana futures signals to regulators that Solana is maturing as an asset, making it easier for them to approve additional financial products of similar risk and type.

Futures contracts are standardized agreements to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date. They play a crucial supporting role for spot cryptocurrency ETFs because regulated futures markets provide a stable benchmark for measuring a digital asset’s performance. CME already lists futures contracts for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), and US regulators approved ETFs for both of those cryptocurrencies last year.

Beyond the immediate impact on ETF approvals, Solana futures and ETFs are expected to expand Solana’s growth story beyond memecoins, which were central to the blockchain network’s success in 2024. These products will bring more serious, sticky capital and pave the way for the development of other real-world use cases, such as payments and remittances. These use cases, while perhaps less exciting than memecoins, are a reliable source of long-term revenue that will support Solana’s price in the next bear market.

Despite the decline in activity on the Solana network in February due to memecoin-related scandals, cryptocurrency trading volumes on Solana continue to rival those of the entire Ethereum ecosystem, including its layer-2 scaling chains. Chung expects Solana ETFs to take off among retail investors, partly because of the challenges facing rival smart contract platform Ethereum. Solana’s native SOL token has performed about twice as well as Ether since early 2024.

Ethereum’s spot price has struggled since March 2024, when the network’s Dencun upgrade cut transaction fees by approximately 95%. This has made Solana the only viable option for retail investors wanting to get exposure to crypto beyond Bitcoin, but not willing to take on the risks associated with more volatile assets.