Fidelity, Canary ignite Solana’s ETF race – So why is retail pulling back?

Key Takeaways

How many spot Solana ETFs will be active after these launches?

With the launch of FSOL and SOLC, there will be five active spot Solana ETFs in the market.

Who confirmed the launch of these ETFs?

Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas confirmed the news and called it a major milestone for Solana.

The race to dominate the Solana [SOL] ETF market is heating up once again.

More Solana ETFs join the race

This time, it’s Fidelity and Canary Capital stepping into the spotlight with the upcoming launch of the Fidelity Solana ETF (FSOL) and Canary Marinade Solana ETF (SOLC), both set to debut on the 18th of November.

Once these funds go live, the crypto market will boast five active Spot Solana ETFs. 

Bloomberg’s Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted the launch as another milestone moment in Solana’s rapid ascent within the regulated investment landscape.

Taking to X, Balchunas noted, 

“Fidelity recently rolled out *direct* spot solana trading…Tomorrow they’ll launch spot sol ETF.So both direct sol access & spot ETFs. World’s *third* largest asset manager. Welcome to the future.”

However, he also expressed his disappointment and mentioned, 

“Still surprised BlackRock is sitting this one out.”

Why is BlackRock not showing interest in altcoin ETFs?

While anticipation had been building that BlackRock might join the Solana ETF wave, the firm seemed content sticking to its established Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] offerings.

In fact, in a recent interview, Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets, dismissed the broader altcoin market, bluntly stating that “most of the altcoins are worthless.”

He said,

“One has to be very wary going far down the table with hundreds of thousands of crypto assets today. The vast majority of those are or will be totally worthless.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s James Seyffart also confirmed the Canary ETF listing, adding that issuers were competing aggressively for Solana dominance.

Source: James Seyffart/X

Solana’s price action is concerning

Yet, despite the wave of ETF launches and institutional excitement, SOL market performance told a different story.

At press time, the token was trading at $136.80, down 3.24% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, reflecting fading market enthusiasm. This showed that investor sentiment around the altcoin has cooled sharply.

Data from Polymarket showed that traders assigned just 7% probability of SOL reaching a new all-time high before 2026, a steep fall from 60% odds in September at the height of ETF optimism.

Other Solana ETFs

This downturn coincided with the debut of VanEck’s Solana ETF (VSOL) on the 17th of November, which officially began trading on Nasdaq after receiving regulatory clearance under the SEC’s updated ETF framework.

Farside Investors data showed Solana ETF recording $8.2 million inflows at the same time, with Bitwise’s BSOL recording $7.3 million inflows and Grayscale’s GSOL recording $0.9 million inflows.