Solana ETF Pulls In $200M in Its First Week — As Wall Street Battles, Western Union Makes a Strategic Bet

In late October 2025, the crypto industry witnessed a landmark event: Solana (SOL) overcame its final regulatory hurdle and became the third cryptocurrency—after Bitcoin and Ethereum—to secure approval for a spot exchange-traded product (ETP) in the United States.

This wasn’t just another routine ETF approval. The journey was filled with drama, the product’s design held unique features, and market reactions surprised traders across the board. For crypto professionals, the launch of the Solana ETF marks not the end but the beginning of a new era packed with insider dynamics and fresh opportunities.

Wall Street’s “Civil War”

The Solana ETF’s introduction was anything but conventional. Rather than emerging from a public SEC vote and enthusiastic press releases, it occurred during a period of U.S. federal government shutdown.

Amid this regulatory window, two asset management titans—Bitwise and Grayscale—demonstrated exceptional legal agility. By leveraging SEC guidance issued during this time, they enabled S-1 registration statements to become effective automatically, without the usual “delaying amendments.”

• October 28: Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (Ticker: BSOL) listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
• October 29: Grayscale Solana Trust (Ticker: GSOL) followed, converting its trust into an ETP.

This “regulatory blitz” created a compliant entry point for trillions of dollars in U.S. institutional and retail retirement capital to access Solana.

First-week figures were staggering. For U.S. Solana ETPs:

• Total net inflow in the first week: $199.2 million
• Total assets under management (AUM) surged past $500 million.

Beneath the averages, the reality was a fierce winner-takes-all “Wall Street civil war.”

• Winner: Bitwise (BSOL), with $197 million net inflow in week one and total AUM (including seed capital) around $420 million.
• Loser: Grayscale (GSOL), with $2.18 million net inflow in week one and total AUM (including converted assets) around $101 million.

The numbers speak for themselves: Bitwise’s BSOL captured nearly 99% of new capital, with the outcome clear from day one.

Why such a landslide? The answer lies in BSOL’s “three blitzkrieg essentials”:

Timing (one day earlier, winner takes all): BSOL listed on October 28 (Tuesday); GSOL converted on October 29 (Wednesday). In the ETF world, liquidity is king. As Bloomberg analysts noted, “Even a one-day lag is massive. It makes competition much tougher.” BSOL positioned itself as the definitive Solana ETF.

Pricing (0.20% vs 0.35%): BSOL charges a 0.20% management fee and is free for the first three months or until AUM reaches $1 billion. GSOL’s fee is 0.35%. For institutional investors, that 0.15% annual difference is substantial.

Product (100% vs 77%): This was the decisive “secret weapon.” BSOL’s prospectus committed to staking 100% of its SOL holdings, while GSOL pledged to stake only 77%.

Outside the crypto community, this 23% gap might seem trivial. But for industry insiders, it’s what makes the Solana ETF truly revolutionary.

A Yield-Generating ETF

The Solana ETF’s structure is a game-changer compared to Bitcoin ETFs.

Bitcoin ETFs function as vaults for “digital gold”—they provide no yield. Solana, as a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) asset, acts more like “digital real estate,” generating ongoing rental income through staking.

The appeal of yield-generating assets:

• Superior yields: Solana’s staking APY ranges from 5% to 7%, far outpacing Ethereum’s approximate 2% and offering institutions a “unique income stream.”
• Narrative shift: Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan put it succinctly: “Institutional investors want ETFs and they want income. Solana delivers the highest income of any blockchain. That’s why institutions want the Solana ETF.”
• Product fundamentals: Investing in Bitcoin ETFs is a bet on price appreciation. Investing in Solana ETFs combines price appreciation with a substantial, uncorrelated cash flow (staking rewards).

The biggest “Easter egg” is the SEC’s stance.

When Ethereum ETFs were approved in 2024, staking was off-limits. The SEC’s concerns over staking’s “securities” characteristics led issuers to remove such features overnight.

This time, the SEC quietly gave its blessing, allowing both BSOL and GSOL—staking-enabled products—to list.

This silent approval signals a fundamental shift in SEC policy. It opens a trillion-dollar “yield-generating crypto asset” sector for Wall Street, letting institutions not only buy crypto but also earn compliant staking yields via ETFs. The rules of the game have changed.

Why Did Prices Drop Despite a Major Bullish Catalyst?

While Wall Street celebrated the ETF launch, traders watching price charts were perplexed:

If nearly $200 million flowed into the ETF in its first week, why did SOL’s price tumble?

After the ETF debuted, SOL’s price fell sharply. On October 30, it dropped 8% in a single day, retracing 27% from its August peak and bottoming near $163—well below the widely expected $300.

“Rising inflows, falling prices”—this anomaly caught many off guard. A closer look reveals it’s not an ETF failure, but the convergence of four powerful factors:

• “Buy the rumor, sell the news”: A textbook scenario. Short-term traders who positioned early cashed out en masse as soon as the news broke.
• History repeats (Bitcoin): The post-launch pattern mirrored Bitcoin ETF’s debut in January 2024. BTC’s price stagnated or dropped (-5%) after launch, despite robust inflows. The rebound only came weeks later, after selling pressure subsided.
• Macro “perfect storm”: The Solana ETF launched during a challenging period, coinciding with a risk-off trend in crypto. That week (October 27), Bitcoin ETFs saw huge outflows ($600 million to $946 million), with the market broadly under pressure.
• “Whale” selloff: The most dramatic factor. On-chain data showed Jump Crypto, a major player, sold 1.1 million SOL (about $205 million) for Bitcoin on October 30—the day after BSOL’s debut.

Bringing these threads together:

During a “sell the news” wave and Bitcoin ETF outflows exceeding $600 million, a whale sold $205 million worth of SOL.

Under normal conditions, this would have crashed SOL’s price.

Yet, in the last week of October 2025, almost all of that $205 million selloff was absorbed by new institutional buying from Solana ETFs (mainly BSOL), which brought $199.2 million in inflows.

Here’s the takeaway: SOL ETF inflows demonstrated remarkable relative strength, absorbing whale selling even in a weak market. New institutional buyers (ETF investors) directly offset legacy players (Jump Crypto) selling down. Far from bearish, this is a powerful long-term bullish signal, proving a robust and sustainable institutional bid has formed.

What’s Next for the Solana ETF?

With the ETF approved, Wall Street’s big question is: How much capital will it attract? Here, crypto-native firms and legacy financial giants diverged sharply:

• Bullish camp (crypto-native): Grayscale’s research head Zach Pandl projects Solana ETPs could capture 5% of total Solana supply in one to two years—over $5 billion at current prices.
• Cautious camp (traditional finance): JPMorgan, in contrast, forecasts just $1.5 billion of net inflows in year one.

Why is JPMorgan so conservative? They cite “low institutional awareness of Solana” and concerns about “meme coin trading increasingly dominating network activity.”

JPMorgan’s concerns echo the broader question in traditional finance: Is Solana a cutting-edge financial infrastructure or just a “meme coin casino”?

Just two days after the ETF launch, the arrival of new institutional capital settled this debate decisively.

On October 30, 2025, global payments giant Western Union announced a major strategic initiative: Western Union selected the Solana blockchain for its upcoming stablecoin—U.S. Dollar Payment Token (USDPT)—scheduled for launch in the first half of 2026.

Western Union’s announcement highlighted Solana’s “high performance,” “high throughput, low cost, and instant settlement” as key reasons for the choice.

This news resonated far more than the ETF, perfectly answering JPMorgan’s doubts. No global remittance network would be built atop a “meme coin casino.” Western Union’s bet on Solana is a resounding endorsement of its financial infrastructure credentials.

Summary

The approval of the Solana ETF is not a finish line but the starting gun for a new era. It showcases two parallel tracks for institutional Solana adoption:

• Financialization (ETF): Wall Street asset managers (e.g., Bitwise) are turning SOL into “yield-generating” financial products for institutional clients.
• Infrastructure (Western Union): Global enterprises (e.g., Western Union) are leveraging Solana as “low-cost” financial infrastructure for core business operations.

These tracks reinforce each other. Western Union’s adoption boosts the fundamentals for ETF investors; ETF-driven AUM and professional staking (Bitwise’s “New Wall Street” narrative) enhance network security and stability for builders like Western Union.

While JPMorgan worries about meme coins, Bitwise and Western Union have already demonstrated: Solana is not just the “New Wall Street”—it’s the new foundation for global payments and financial infrastructure. The flywheel of financialization and infrastructure is now accelerating in tandem.

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