The worldwide asset supervisor VanEck has filed an S-1 registration assertion with the US Securities and Trade Fee(SEC) to launch the VanEck JitoSOL exchange-traded fund (ETF). In response to the filing, this fund will maintain solely JitoSOL, the liquid staking token issued by Jito Community.
The submission marks the primary try and register a US exchange-traded fund backed by a liquid staking token, doubtlessly exposing buyers to Solana’s staking yields by means of a regulated product. JitoSOL represents Solana (SOL) locked with validators whereas offering a transferable token that accrues rewards, a course of referred to as liquid staking.
The product would lengthen VanEck’s growth into digital asset funds, following its spot Bitcoin ETF launched in early 2024 and Ether ETF earlier that year. In contrast to these automobiles, the JitoSOL ETF might check the SEC’s stance on staking.
SEC continues to debate staking
The transfer from VanEck comes after Jito Labs and the Jito Basis co-authored a letter to the SEC on July 31 urging regulators to allow liquid staking tokens like JitoSOL to be included in exchange-traded merchandise, with assist from VanEck, Bitwise, Multicoin Capital and the Solana Coverage Institute.
Within the letter, the teams argued that liquid staking tokens present a safer and extra environment friendly strategy to combine staking into exchange-traded merchandise (ETPs), spreading stake throughout validators and decreasing operational complexity. They pointed to out there SEC steering indicating that the majority types of staking don’t represent securities transactions, framing liquid staking tokens as per current guidelines.
That steering has are available two elements. In Could, the SEC’s employees issued a statement saying solo and delegated staking typically fall outside securities laws as a result of rewards are set by the protocol relatively than a 3rd occasion.
In August, the company extended the view to liquid staking, describing receipt tokens equivalent to JitoSOL as proof of possession relatively than funding contracts — supplied the supplier doesn’t exert discretionary management.
Nonetheless, the SEC’s feedback are employees statements relatively than binding guidelines, that means they don’t carry the drive of legislation and may very well be reinterpreted by the Fee or courts.
The SEC’s posture on staking has advanced significantly from the previous. In February 2023, the company charged crypto alternate Kraken with providing an unregistered staking program, leading to a $30 million settlement and the closure of its US staking service. Later that 12 months, the company sued Coinbase over comparable allegations. That case was dismissed in February 2025.
Past enforcement actions, the SEC has additionally formed staking coverage by means of the ETF approval course of. When the company authorized spot Ether ETFs in May 2024, issuers initially proposed the choice to stake Ether (ETH) held by the funds. The SEC required all references to staking to be eliminated earlier than approving.
In consequence, the Ether ETFs launched final 12 months from issuers together with BlackRock, Constancy, Grayscale, and VanEck maintain ETH solely and don’t interact in staking.
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