The Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) on March 12 filed a 19b-4 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of Franklin Templeton. Cboe made the filing to the SEC to list and trade shares of the Franklin Solana ETF.
Franklin Templeton is currently the largest asset manager to file for a Solana-based exchange-traded fund, with over $1.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM). Solana’s price is currently exchanging hands around $124.84 after the Franklin Templeton news, a 12% decrease in the past 7 days.
CBOE files a 19b-4 with the SEC on behalf of Franklin TempletonÂ
🚨 ANOTHER FIRM MOVES FOR $SOL ETF – IS 2025 THE YEAR FOR SOLANA? 🚨
Franklin Templeton just filed for a #Solana ETF, joining the growing list of firms betting on it. With momentum building, SOL looks like the top contender for the next big approval in 2025! pic.twitter.com/qHUHTW5XaT
— Giannis Andreou (@gandreou007) March 12, 2025
Cboe BZX Exchange submitted a 19b-4 form with the SEC on Wednesday on behalf of Franklin Templeton. The Chicago-based exchange wants the U.S. regulators to list and trade shares of the Franklin Solana exchange-traded fund.
The 19b-4 filing represents the second level of a two-step process for proposing a crypto ETF to the SEC. The form will be published in the Federal Register once acknowledged by the SEC, which will initiate the agency’s approval process.
The Cboe filing followed Franklin Templeton’s filing of an S-1 on February 21 to launch a spot XRP ETF. Franklin Templeton also registered a Solana trust in the state of Delaware on February 11, which the Cboe said will form the basis for the ETF.
The asset manager’s S-1 also indicated that it may stake some of the digital assets in the fund through one or more trusted staking providers. The firm also said that the fund would receive SOL as a reward, and the staking reward would be treated as fund income.Â
The agency must approve both forms 19b-4 and S-1 before launching the Franklin Templeton exchange-traded fund. The firm’s S-1 also followed Franklin Templeton’s launch of EZPZ and Ethereum ETF on the Cboe BZX Exchange. The asset manager maintained that the ETF consisted of 82% BTC and 18% ETH and tracks the assets on the CF Benchmark’s Institutional Digital Asset Index. Franklin Templeton also offers the Franklin Bitcoin ETF and the Franklin Ethereum ETF, which were both launched in December 2024.
Franklin Templeton follows other filed crypto ETFs
The SEC has been hit with a wave of digital currency ETF applications in recent weeks. Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyfatt and Eric Balchunas put out relatively high odds of approval for spot crypto ETFs across the board. Seyfatt and Balchunas acknowledged that Litecoin ETFs had the highest chance of approval, with a 90% chance. The analysts also estimated that Solana spot ETFs had a 70% chance of getting approval from the SEC.
Other firms filed similar 19b-4 forms to Franklin Templeton including Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares and Canary Capital. The companies also filed the forms on their behalf by the prospective exchanges that would list them. The New York Securities Exchange ARCA filed Grayscale’s 19b-4 form, while the others are also angling for Cboe BZX Exchange listings.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) listed the first-ever Solana-based funds after listing two Solana futures ETFs, Volatility Shares SOLZ and SOLT. The listings acted as a precursor to spot Solana ETF approvals, mirroring the trajectory of Bitcoin and Ethereum funds.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) also revealed plans to establish SOL futures contracts on March 17, 2025, pending SEC approval. Institutional demand for regulated risk management tools in the crypto space led to the introduction of standardized (500 SOL) and micro (25 SOL) contracts.Â
JPMorgan analysts estimated around $3 to $6 billion in inflows within the first year of approval of spot Solana ETFs, which indicated a surge in demand from institutions restricted from direct digital currency purchases.
Galaxy Digital highlighted how BTC funds improved market depth and price tracking accuracy. The firm noted that the 2021 launch of ProShares’ Bitcoin futures ETF (BITO) catalyzed a 70% price surge within a year. The company also acknowledged that Ethereum’s ETF approvals late last year reinforced a similar pattern, which saw spot products driving institutional adoption. Seyfatt and Balchunas argued that ETF validation could cement SOL’s status alongside BTC and ETH as a cornerstone digital asset.
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