VanEck has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) built around JitoSOL, a token on the Solana blockchain.
The application, submitted today through a Form S-1 filing, is meant to give investors a new way to buy into Solana’s liquid staking market without holding the tokens directly.
According to the filling, JitoSOL is a type of token that represents staked SOL, the native token of Solana. When someone stakes SOL, they lock it in the network to help keep it running, and in return, they earn rewards.
Normally, staked tokens cannot be used until they are unlocked, but JitoSOL changes that. With JitoSOL, people can earn rewards and still use or trade their tokens at the same time. This is called liquid staking, and it gives users more freedom compared to traditional staking.
According to VanEck’s filing, the new fund will follow the price of JitoSOL, which means the ETF’s value will rise or fall depending on how JitoSOL performs. This would let investors buy shares of the ETF in their regular brokerage accounts instead of managing crypto wallets or exchanges.
In a blogpost, Jito Foundation said the fund is ““the first spot Solana ETF 100% backed by a liquid staking token (LST): the Jito Network’s JitoSOL….Ultimately, packaging exposure to JitoSOL in a regulated wrapper is a meaningful step toward bridging the gap between emergent blockchain infrastructure and institutional allocators,”
Meanwhile, ito Labs has also been in talks with the SEC for months to explain how staking and restaking could work in ETFs. CEO Lucas Bruder and Chief Legal Officer Rebecca Rettig have met with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force.
The SEC itself has recently clarified its views on staking. Earlier this year, the regulator said proof-of-stake systems do not count as securities. Later, it also said some liquid staking activities are not securities either. With this new guidance, the Jito Foundation said, the “compliance runway for LST-based ETFs/ETPs is clear and actionable.”
This filing also comes just after REX-Osprey launched a Solana staking ETF that used JitoSOL for rewards. The SEC is now reviewing many crypto ETF applications, with a friendlier approach under the Trump administration. If approved, the VanEck JitoSOL ETF would be the first U.S. fund fully tied to a liquid staking token.
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