By Suzanne McGee
(Reuters) - Exchange operator Cboe Global Markets (NYSE:CBOE) filed a request with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday seeking to list exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to cryptocurrency Solana, requiring the agency to make a decision by March.
Under SEC rules, the agency has 240 calendar days to decide whether to approve or deny Cboe's "19b-4" application to list the products from VanEck and digital asset manager 21Shares. They are the first proposed ETF products tied to the price of Solana, the fifth largest cryptocurrency, according to CoinGecko.
VanEck and 21Shares in June applied with the SEC to launch the new products. The SEC must also approve those "S-1" filings before the products can begin trading, but the agency's rules do set a deadline for those investor disclosure filings.
If approved, the products would mark a third wave of spot cryptocurrency ETFs, after the SEC in January approved ETFs tied to the price of bitcoin, in a watershed for the industry. Such products require a two-stage approval process.
"We are now addressing the increasing investor interest in Solana – one of the most actively traded cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Ether," said Rob Marrocco, global head of ETP Listings at Cboe.
VanEck, 21Shares and other issuers are also waiting on the final green light from the SEC to launch ETFs tied to the spot price of the second-largest cryptocurrency, ethereum.
That go-ahead is likely to come within the next week, said two people familiar with the process. Regulators have already approved the exchanges' application to list and trade those new products.
The price of Solana is hovering around $137.83, down from last month's peak of nearly $150 when the two ETF filings were first submitted, CoinGecko data showed.
(This story has been officially corrected to say 'one of the most actively traded' instead of 'the third most actively traded', in paragraph 6)