Is this the end for the Solana bull run rally? The SEC was at it again and continued its crusade against crypto. About a week ago, the SEC had a talk with various ETF issuers. During these talks, the SEC expressed concerns that Solana might be a security. As a result, the CBOE (the Chicago Board Options Exchange) removed its related 19b-4 filings. Or the SEC may have rejected the filings. There’s no clarity on what exactly happened. However, the filings aren’t there anymore. So we can’t see what happened….
Once anybody files these forms, the approval clock starts ticking. Exchanges, like the CBOE, file these forms on behalf of issuers. So, where does this leave Solana? Does this make a big dent in its rally? Let’s find out.
The SEC and Solana
Solana is not the first project targeted by the SEC. Ripple ($XRP) won their lawsuit against the SEC, proving that their $XRP token is not a security. However, the SEC has already called Solana a security a couple of times. So, this should not come as a complete surprise.
XRP is not a security.
This victory for @Ripple is a win for the entire industry and a step toward regulatory clarity in the U.S.
A huge thank you to @bgarlinghouse, @chrislarsensf, and @s_alderoty for their leadership and the #XRPCommunity for their continued support.
— Ripple (@Ripple) July 13, 2023
Still, after the recent discussion, the 19-B4 forms are nowhere in sight anymore on the CBOE. The potential issuers, VanEck and S21Shares are still on EDGAR. That’s the SEC’s filing system.
Matthew Sigel even went a step further. He’s VanEck’s Head of Research. Sigel mentioned that their application remains in play. He also went the extra mile to point out VanEck believes that $SOL is a commodity. Like $BTC or $ETH.
Sigel supports this by saying that courts and regulators are changing their stance. They are starting to recognize a new angle. Certain crypto assets may function as securities in a primary market. However, they behave more like commodities in secondary markets.
For the record, VanEck believes SOL is a commodity, much like BTC and ETH. This belief is informed by evolving legal perspectives, where courts and regulators have begun to recognize that certain crypto assets may function as securities in primary markets but behave more like…
— matthew sigel, recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) August 19, 2024
He continues by pointing out that Solana has made considerable progress in decentralization. For example,
- The top 100 holders now control approximately 27% of the supply. That’s a significant reduction from a year ago.
- The top 10 addresses now hold less than 9%.
- Solana’s Nakamoto’s Coefficient is 18. This measures decentralization. For Solana, this is a good number.
- The upcoming Firedancer client will further strengthen decentralization. It prevents a single entity from dominating the chain.
So, these are all strong cases to bring in against the SEC’s case.
What Does This Mean for Solana?
So, does this mean that Solana’s rally is now over and done with? Well, that would surprise me. In an earlier video about a Solana spot ETF, I already mentioned that I don’t see this spot ETF happen anytime soon. My main reason for that being that Solana doesn’t have a US Future contract. This is an important tool for hedging capital.
So, from my point of view, I don’t see this stopping the Solana rally. Maybe Solana won’t rally as hard, but it won’t stop the rally. Solana also has other features that make it pump. For example, memecoins. Not that we’re big fans of memecoins at Altcoin Buzz. However, $SOL’s market cap is $74 billion. Solana memecoins have a total market cap of $7.2 billion. They look like a sea of green.
Bitcoin also made a move last week. It went up 9% over the last 7 days. During the same timeframe, $SOL went up 11.9%. So, it looks to me that Solana is still going strong. The 7-day growth is even stronger in some of Solana’s ecosystem projects. For example,
- Jupiter is up by 17.57%
- Pyth Network is up by 11.36%
- IO.net is up by 35.61%
- Kamino Finance is up by 25.84%
- Zeus Network is up by 39.28%
- BONK is up by 18.78%
Source: CoinMarketCap
That looks to me as if something is brewing in the Solana ecosystem. So, removing the Solana spot ETF filing looks like nothing more than a temporary hiccup. As VanEck’s Head of Research already mentioned, they haven’t given up on a spot ETF yet.
What Else Is Happening at Solana?
There’s more happening at Solana than spot ETFs. Its ecosystem seems to be in good shape, as I just pointed out. Now, since I’m talking about ETFs already, let’s take a look at Brazil.
The Brazilian SEC (CVM) approves a second Solana ETF. The Brazilian arm of Hashdex has the honor. This boosts their adoption in Latin America.
Jito is a staking protocol. For the first time ever, it reached a TVL over 12 million $SOL. That’s no less than 721% up since the same time last year. Jito also has the first Solana based LRT (Liquid Restaking Token). That’s $ezSOL, introduced by Renzo and Jito. Renzo is a popular Ethereum restaking platform. It has a TVL of $1.2 billion.
🚨BREAKING: @jito_sol TVL has surpassed 12M $SOL for the first time. pic.twitter.com/mj0ouN4tRm
— SolanaFloor (@SolanaFloor) August 15, 2024
There may be a new NFT season on the horizon. Solana may be leading that charge. On 23rd August, Solana NFTs were up 42% in daily sales. That’s worth over $3 million. Currently, the Solana Monkey Business collection has the most sales.
🚨 LATEST: @Solana surpasses $3 million in Daily NFT sales volume.
Progress: up 42% in the last 24 hours pic.twitter.com/8ZObG6IEg6
— SolanaFloor (@SolanaFloor) August 23, 2024
So, more evidence that the Solana ecosystem is thriving. It seems to me that this Solana spot ETF situation is nothing else but a storm in a teacup. What are your thoughts on how $SOL will perform during the next leg up in the bull run?
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