Beyond Market Caps: The Unstoppable Rise of Spot Crypto ETFs

Sure, it can make sense to monitor crypto market caps — and it’s normal to cheer when digital asset values go up and wish that they wouldn’t go down. There is, however, a much bigger trajectory to keep in mind: the blending of crypto and traditional investment opportunities in ways that, not long ago, would have seemed nearly impossible.

If you could go for a brief jaunt backwards in a time machine, traveling back two years, you might hear plenty of experts opining how it would take quite a while for the U.S. SEC to approve a spot BTC ETF. The composition of the SEC wasn’t particularly crypto-friendly, and it could feel as if forward movement wasn’t in the cards.

Plenty of people felt that way on January 9, 2024 — and, on January 10, 2024, the SEC released a statement that began with this line: “Today, the Commission approved the listing and trading of a number of spot bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) shares.” Eleven of them traded on day one: January 11. At the time, BTC was priced around $46,000; by December, this figure had more than doubled to $108,000. As of January 2025, investors had committed more than $37 billion in collective funds.

Then, after the spot BTC ETF approval, many experts believed it would be a long time before another crypto asset got approved as a spot ETF — but, by July 23, 2024, spot ETH ETFs were trading. The Economic Times noted how, through this approval, “It opens digital assets to a broader audience and signals an acknowledgement of crypto as a mainstream financial instrument. Crypto is no longer just another alternative asset class.”

Yet, many pundits once again drew the line, not expecting further expansion of digital asset-based spot ETFs.

Well . . . in February 2025, the SEC acknowledged a spot Solana ETF filing that, as TokenTax noted, “marks a meaningful shift, paving the way for more direct Solana ETF applications.” Multiple other firms are, not surprisingly, petitioning the SEC for their spot Solana ETF products.

What’s next? Stay tuned!