This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe . ICYMI, Sol Strategies announced that it was investing CAD $25 million ($17.4 million) in the Solana ecosystem earlier this week. CEO Leah Wald told me ahead of the new year that Sol Strategies was focused on building up the “next level” of its business strategy. Obviously, given Sol’s focus, the firm is gonna be bullish on the ecosystem, but Wald noted how pleasantly surprised she was at the amount of developer activity and overall enthusiasm for Solana right now. She is skeptical, however, about a solana ETF being approved in the US “anytime soon.” “I think there’s quite a while until a SOL ETF gets approved. During that time, as a former issuer, I know that you have a long time where you’re working with the staff and you’re working on education. That gives [potential issuers] a year…to educate the staff and make sure that everybody’s up to speed on what you know SOL actually is, and the merits and benefits, and provide…that additional timeline for maturity,” she explained. But she does think that Canada is likely to approve a SOL ETF from 3iQ before we see a slew of US products because the Canadian issuer is “always ahead of the US.” Out of curiosity, and given Wald’s experience, I pushed her on why she thinks a potentially crypto-friendly regulator wouldn’t look to get an ETF that holds SOL out the door. She told me part of her reasoning was exactly because of the changing leadership at the SEC. If the new SEC chair “came in and said, ‘okay, all crypto ETFs are approved overnight,’ I think that that’s dangerous, actually,” she explained. It would be better to see a regulator who’s willing to put in the work to understand the differences between something like Solana and Ripple and speak to potential issuers prior to just greenlighting ETFs. I guess we’ll have to make do with the crypto ETFs we have at home. Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter . Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter . Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more. The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.
