Author: Alex O'Donnell, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said on January 16 that even in the White House, which is friendly to cryptocurrencies, Under the leadership, the Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) may not be launched in the United States until 2026.

In an interview with Blockworks, Seyffart said issuers "may see a lag" in applications for the Solana ETF after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

However, "because of the SEC's precedent of taking 240-260 days to review applications, the timeline could extend into 2026," Seyffart said.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is filing a lawsuit against a cryptocurrency exchange alleging that SOL constitutes an unregistered security, further complicating the review process, he said.

“SEC Enforcement’s assertion that Solana is a security prevents other SEC divisions from conducting commodity ETF wrapper analysis,” Seyffart said.

The market is betting on the likelihood of Solana ETF approval. Source: Polymarket

Trump, who has pledged to turn the United States into the “cryptocurrency capital of the world,” plans to appoint crypto-industry-friendly leaders to lead companies including U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Major financial regulators including the Exchange Commission (SEC).

Under President Joe Biden, the SEC has taken an aggressive regulatory stance on cryptocurrencies, taking hundreds of actions against companies in the industry.

In 2024, the agency authorized issuers to list spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in January and July respectively.

Other ETF applications, however, including several proposed spot SOL ETFs, have stalled.

“Many Solana ETF applications have been filed but not recognized by the SEC—they have actually been rejected outright,” Seyffart said.

In 2024, asset managers filed a series of regulatory filings to list ETFs holding altcoins, including SOL, XRP, and Litecoin, among others.

Issuers are also awaiting approval for several planned crypto index ETFs designed to hold multiple digital tokens.

In fact, these filings are “call options for a Trump victory” in the U.S. presidential race, said Eric Ba, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligencelchunas said in october.

Not everyone agrees with Seyffart. In November, Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, said the likelihood of a U.S. listing for the SOL ETF before the end of 2025 was “extremely high.”