Bitcoin and Ethereum will be the only two cryptos traded via ETFs in the near future, according to BlackRock’s senior exchange-traded fund executive.
Speaking with Bloomberg TV, Samara Cohen, BlackRock's chief investment officer for ETF and index investments, said while Bitcoin and Ethereum met the minimum expectations of the investment giant for ETFs, no other digital asset comes close.
Cohen also said above and beyond any technical difficulties in bringing new ETFs to market, the appetite for other currency ETFs, particularly Solana, simply wasn’t there. yet.
“We really look at the investability to see what meets the criteria, what meets the bar to be delivered in an ETF,” Cohen said in the interview. “For us, both in terms of investability and also what we hear from our clients, Bitcoin and Ethereum definitely meet that bar, but it will be a while before we see anything else.”
Following the successful launch of Ethereum ETFs last week, which resulted in crypto funds' weekly trading volume reaching its highest level since May, above $14.8 billion, there has been speculation on what might come next.
Solana has been floated as the most likely candidate, and indeed, there have been two separate filings for Solana ETFs in the US by both VanEck and 21Shares.
Many are bullish on it as an asset because it is considered to be a faster and cheaper alternative to Ethereum.
However, there are no Solana CME futures as there are Bitcoin and Ethereum, and this is seen as a key roadblock to the ability of the SEC to approve a Solana ETF.
The assumption that it will be next was further strengthened when fund manager Franklin Templeton described Solana as an “exciting and major development that we believe will drive the crypto space forward.”
Solana represents around 3% of the overall value of the crypto market with a market capitalization of $82 billion, CoinGecko data shows.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair