BlackRock’s Solana Snub: Cosmic Indifference or Masterstroke? 🚀💸🌌

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In a universe where financial institutions occasionally remember altcoins exist, Fidelity’s Solana ETF will launch on November 19, 2025, with a 25-basis-point fee that screams “I’m trying my darndest to be competitive.” Meanwhile, BlackRock, the 800-pound gorilla of asset management, has opted to sip margaritas on the sidelines, ignoring the chaos entirely.

As the Solana ETF circus gallops into town, BlackRock’s decision to stick with Bitcoin and Ethereum is less “calculated strategy” and more “we forgot our keys in the car.” Analysts are scratching their heads. Is this a missed opportunity or a cosmic-level chess move? 🤷♂️

Altcoin Apocalypse Now: The Solana ETF Free-for-All

The Solana ETF market is expanding faster than a microwave burrito on a Monday morning. Bitwise’s BSOL launched with $450 million in assets, which is roughly the GDP of a small island nation. VanEck’s VSOL followed suit on November 18, 2025, because why not add another acronym to the alphabet soup?

Fidelity’s FSOL, dropping November 19, is the financial equivalent of a toddler joining a rap battle-sudden, unexpected, and oddly aggressive. Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas, a man who’s seen it all, remarked: “Game on.” 🎮💥

Fidelity Solana ETF $FSOL is slated to launch TOMORROW. Fee is 25bps. Easily the biggest asset manager in this category with BlackRock sitting out. $BSOL got out first, has $450m, $VSOL launched today, Grayscale is in mix. Game on.

– Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 17, 2025

Canary Capital isn’t missing the party either. Its Solana ETF, SOLC, partners with Marinade Finance to offer on-chain staking. Because nothing says “trust us” like letting a company with “finance” in its name handle your crypto staking. 🔐

ALSO. @CanaryFunds will be launching their Solana ETF – $SOLC – tomorrow too. It’s in partnership with @MarinadeFinance who will be doing the staking.

– James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 18, 2025

Nasdaq’s listing announcement confirmed the Canary Marinade Solana ETF started trading November 18. Grayscale, ever the party crasher, added more noise to the chaos. Solana’s futures open interest? Skyrocketing. The market’s about to get as crowded as a Black Friday sale at a discount crypto store. 🕳️

Price consolidation? More like a crypto version of waiting for the bus. Institutions are circling like vultures, but Solana’s price is doing its best impression of a confused potato. 🥔

BlackRock’s “Altcoin? Never Heard of Her” Strategy

BlackRock, meanwhile, is busy perfecting the art of the side-eye. The firm’s digital assets chief, Robert Mitchnick, declared at Bitcoin 2024: “Altcoins? They’re like expired yogurt. No liquidity, no maturity, no je ne sais quoi.”

According to BlackRock’s logic, after Bitcoin (55% market cap) and Ethereum (18%), everything else is just “glorified Monopoly money.” The next-biggest crypto? A measly 3%. Mitchnick’s threshold for ETF-worthiness? Higher than a giraffe’s Instagram algorithm. 🦒

“I don’t think we’re going to see a long list of crypto ETFs. If you think of Bitcoin, today it represents about 55% of the market cap. Ethereum is at 18%. The next plausible investible asset is at, like, 3%. It’s just not close to being at that threshold or track record of maturity, liquidity, etc.,” Mitchnick said.

Jay Jacobs, BlackRock’s ETF guru, added: “Our clients barely own IBIT or ETHA. We’re barely scratching the iceberg. Why bother with altcoins when we’re still explaining ‘blockchain’ to our board?” 🧊

“We’re really just at the tip of the iceberg with Bitcoin and especially ethereum. Just a tiny fraction of our clients own ($IBIT and $ETHA) so that’s what we’re focused on (vs launching new alt coin ETFs)” – Jay Jacobs of BlackRock at ETFs in Depth.

– Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) December 12, 2024

BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) and Ethereum ETF (ETHA) have done gangbusters since launch-though recent outflows suggest the honeymoon phase is over. Maybe they’ll join the Solana frenzy. Or maybe they’ll stick to their guns and wait for the universe to collapse. 🌌

Analysts speculate BlackRock’s BTC/ETH focus is either genius or a slow-motion trainwreck. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes claims it’s a “calculated basis trade,” which is finance-speak for “we’re playing 4D chess while you’re still learning checkers.” 🎩♟️

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2025-11-18 14:23