Solana, XRP first in line as SEC fast-tracks altcoin ETFs

Crypto is racing to Wall Street as Solana and XRP ETFs are widely expected to hit the market as soon as October.

Financial institutions are lining up to launch crypto exchange-traded funds, following new listing rules, Reuters reported on Wednesday, Sept. 24. Notably, these firms are scrambling to meet the updated Securities and Exchange Commission’s standards, which were approved a week prior.

Notably, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has slashed the timeline for approvals from 270 days to as little as 75 days.

The first altcoin ETFs are reportedly set to launch as soon early as October. These will likely be ETFs that are tied to Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) cryptocurrencies. Several prospective ETF firms are updating their filings to the SEC, including Canary Capital, VanEck and more.

“We’ve got about a dozen filings with the SEC now, and more coming,” said Steven McClurg, founder of Canary Capital Group, one of the pioneers in crypto ETFs. “We’re all getting ready for a wave of launches.”

Firms scramble to update their ETF filings

The final wave of updated filings could arrive by this week, with managing firms highlighting new regulatory changes. According to Teddy Fusaro, president of Bitwise, the filings are already far along in the review process.

Still, to qualify for the expedited process, an ETF has to meet certain criteria. For one, the underlying asset must already be traded on a regulated market or have regulated futures contracts for at least six months.

“Not all of our existing filings qualify,” said Kyle DaCruz, director of digital assets product at asset manager VanEck. “The next step is to talk to our lawyers to see which products can move forward and how rapidly will they get onto the market.”