It appears there are plans by VanEck, a global ETF and mutual fund manager, to offer its clients a Solana-backed ETF through a listing in Germany. VanEck has filed for several Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF listings in the U.S. which have so far not been approved. The firm however hopes to enter the cryptocurrency ETF market by this new means.
Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s Head of Digital Assets Research, spoke last month about considering Layer 1 smart contract platforms other than Ethereum. He also pointed out Solana because of its lower transaction prices and faster throughput.
“The idea that you could get 50,000 transactions per second, which would rival Nasdaq, opens up the potential to just securitize any number of existing assets, tokenize them and trade them in parallel using the Solana network.”
While the multiple reports have not been confirmed by VanEck or anyone affiliated to them or Solana, Solana’s recent success throws them in with the big-name blockchain networks.
There is no doubt that the adoption of Solana is rising considerably. Solana currently has the 5th highest ranking in total value locked (TVL) on its DeFi platforms having reached $4.3 billion this month. NFTs too has attracted users in their droves to Solana, as the network offers cheaper fees and faster transactions than Ethereum.
However, last week, the crypto-industry was rocked by the outage and subsequent restart of the Solana blockchain network. For about 17 hours, users of the blockchain were unable to perform transactions on the platform due to what its developers described as “resource exhaustion.”
Solana proponents seem to think the outage is a positive sign for the young blockchain. The blackout has been attributed to the success Solana has seen, as it was the network usage surpassing what its developers ever hoped to attain that caused the outage. To one proponent reported by Bloomberg, it proved that the technology of Solana was superior to other blockchains and almost perfect for mass adoption.
Meanwhile, critics have pointed out that the outage was indicative of larger problems with the industry. Following the failure of engineers to solve the problem, over 80% of the more than 1000 validators of the proof-of-stake and proof-of-history network were able to coordinate rigorously to restart the entire blockchain with an updated version. Critics consider the occurrence to be suspicious and to imply that Solana was decentralized in name only (DINO). John Griffen, a finance professor at the University of Texas, also held this stance and told Bloomberg that to him, the validators on the network were a threat to the immutability of the Solana blockchain.
Despite this, Solana is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies this year. Year to date, its SOL token has surged around 10,500%. The surge has seen it come to be ranked as the 7th largest blockchain by market cap. Whereas it started the year trading at a mere $1.77, it reached an all-time high of over $200 in early September. Solana is currently trading at around $142, down 11.75% on the day.
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