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Sol cycle

Grayscale launches solana ETF, a day after Bitwise’s record-breaking ETF launch

Bitwise’s BSOL recorded the highest day 1 trading volume of any launch this year, per Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas.

10/29/25 10:40AM

Following the launch of the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF on Tuesday, Grayscale launched its solana Trust ETF this morning. The fund is trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker GSOL, and is the first of the firm’s staking funds to uplist (from a trust, launched in 2021) under the new generic listing standards the SEC approved last month.

More than 150 altcoin ETFs tracking 35 coins are soldiering through ways to list despite the government shutdown.

Craig Salm, Grayscale’s chief legal officer, told Sherwood News that, given the shutdown, Grayscale filed an amended S-1 for GSOL, removing the delaying amendment on the SEC’s issuance of guidance. This means the registration statement becomes automatically effective Tuesday afternoon, 20 days after that filing.

“The SEC may still request amendments or revisions once the government reopens and normal operations resume, but based on our engagement with the Commission on GSOL prior to the government shutdown, we’re confident in going to market,” he said.

As for the Bitwise solana ETF, it started off strong with high day 1 trading volume — “the MOST of any launch this year,” per Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas.

$BSOL's $56m is the MOST of any launch this year.. More than $XRPR, $SSK, Ives and $BMNU. And what's amazing is it seeded with $220m. It could have invested seed on Day One, which would have resulted in $280m-ish, would be even more than $ETHA's debut. Strong start either way.
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 28, 2025

Sage D. Young3/20/26

Altcoin trading activity has lost its mojo

Non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies have seen their trading volume plummet in the past five months. The combined trading volume of ethereum, XRP, solana, dogecoin, SUI, and chainlink has decreased by 60% since crypto’s October 10 liquidation event, according to Thomas Probst, a research analyst at crypto markets data provider Kaiko.

Main Altcoins Trading Volume in USD — The trading volume of ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, SUI, and LINK.

For all altcoins, spot trading volume on Binance has declined between 80% and 85% to $7.7 billion, while altcoin volume on other exchanges has dropped to $18.8 billion, down from a range of $63 billion to $91 billion in October, a Friday report from Decrypt found, citing data from CryptoQuant.

“This trend may be explained by a contraction in market liquidity over the same period,” Probst told Sherwood News. “This phenomenon is also reflected in the average 1% market depth, which stood at approximately $2.6 million before the October 10 crash and is now closer to $1.7 million when aggregated across ETH, XRP, SOL, SUI, and LINK.”

Market depth is used by investors and traders to gauge the scale of liquidity in a market. 1% market depth refers to the amount of liquidity needed to move the market by 1%.

CoinGlass’s Altcoin Season Index, a measure to assess the performance of non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies, has been sitting above 50 this week, suggesting that the current market is neither in a bitcoin dominant phase nor an altcoin season.

“Triple witching” day may put further pressure on bitcoin’s price

This is not “a favorable environment for risk assets.”

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy3/20/26

Sage D. Young

3/19/26

Hyperliquid is the “1,000 pound gorilla in the room” leading year-to-date market gains amid conflict in the Middle East

While the crypto industry has shed $564.3 billion in 2026, Hyperliquid’s native token has bucked the downtrend and jumped 54.8% year to date.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

3/19/26

Bitcoin tumbles as oil and gas prices spike and the market’s mood turns risk-off

Bitcoin ETFs reverted to outflows and bitcoin suffered $192 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours.

Sage D. Young3/18/26

Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter.

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows.

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions.

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

Payward, parent of crypto exchange Kraken, has put its IPO plans on hold